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INDIAN   NOTES 


MUSEUM    OF    THE    AMERICAN 


AND  MONOGRAPHS 


/I 


HEYE  FOUNDATION 


INDIAN  NOTES 
AND  MONOGRAPHS 

EDITED  BY  F.  W.  HODGE 

rtyh*^ 

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A  SERIES  OF  PUBLICA- 
TIONS RELATING  TO  THE 
AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 


.CHEROKEE  AND  EARLIER 

REMAINS  -OX  UPPER 

TENNESSEE  RIVER 


HARRINGTON 


;          NEW  YORK 

MUSEUM   Of  THE   AMERICAN  INDIAN 
HEYE  FOUNDATION 

1922 


THIS  series  of  INDIAN  NOTES  AND  MONO- 
GRAPHS is  devoted  primarily  to  the  publica- 
tion of  the  results  of  studies  by  members  of 
the  staff  of  the  Museum  of  the  American 
Indian,  Heye  Foundation,  and  is  uniform 
with  HISPANIC  NOTES  AND  MONOGRAPHS, 
published  by  the  Hispanic  Society  of 
America,  with  which  organization  this 
Museum  is  in  cordial  cooperation. 

Only  the  first  ten  volumes  of  INDIAN 
NOTES  AND  MONOGRAPHS  are  numbered. 
The  unnumbered  parts  may  readily  be  deter- 
mined by  consulting  the  List  of  Publications 
issued  as  one  of  the  series. 


UNIVEPwSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


CHEROKEE  AND  EARLIER 

REMAINS   ON  UPPER 

TENNESSEE  RIVER 


BY 

M.  R.  HARRINGTON 


5 

CONTENTS 
Foreword  

PAGE 
.      23 

I.  The  Upper  Tennessee  Valley 
Signs  of  ancient  occupancy  

.     26 

Former  explorations  

.     27 

Inception  of  the  present  work  .  .  . 
Results  of  the  work  

.     28 
.     29 

Exploration  commenced  

.     30 

First  sites  visited  

.     31 

Caves  and  rock-shelters  

.     32 

II.  Mounds  near  Lenoir  City 
Form  and  structure  of  Mound  1  . 
Contents  

36 

.     38 

cs 

Form  and  structure  of  Mound  2  . 
Contents  

.     40 
.     42 

Form  and  structure  of  Mound  3. 
Contents  

.     44 
.     44 

Conclusions  

.     45 

III.  Mainland  Village-site 
Situation  

.     47 

Cemetery  found  

.     48 

The  excavations  

.     49 

Types  of  graves  

.     50 

The  circular  type  

.     50 

The  rectangular  type  

.     51 

Position  of  skeletons  

.     52 

Inferences  

.     52 

Mortuary  deposits  

.     53 

Individual  graves  

.     53 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


Dog  burials 59 

Pits 60 

Conclusions 60 

IV.  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island 

Former   exploration 63 

Scope  of  our  work 65 

The  Great  Midden 66 

Types  of  interments 68 

The  round  graves 69 

Mortuary  deposits 71 

The  rectangular  graves 72 

Mortuary  deposits 73 

Burials  of  the  historic  period 77 

Dog  burial 78 

Pits 78 

General  digging 80 

Conclusions 80 

V.  Mounds  near  Rhea  Springs 

The  mound  group 84 

Previous  exploration 86 

Mound  2 87 

Circular  stone  graves 87 

Other  burials 89 

Remaining  mounds 91 

Conclusions 91 

VI.  First  Work  on  Hiwassee  Island 

General  character  of  the  island ...  93 

History 94 

Previous  exploration 96 

The  mounds 101 

Mound  1 102 

Structure 102 

Contents •. 103 

Limestone  basin 106 

General  digging 107 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CONTENTS 


VII.  Excavation  of  Mound  2 

Situation  and  structure 108 

Underlying  village  layer Ill 

Burials 112 

Mortuary  offerings 116 

Early  period 116 

Intermediate  period 119 

Later  period 123 

Arrow  wounds 125 

Triple  burial 126 

Dog  burials 127 

VIII.  Other  Work  on  Hiwassee  Island 

Mound  3 128 

Mound  4 128 

MoundS 129 

Structure 129 

Burials 132 

Original  mound 132 

Later  mound 133 

Latest  mound 135 

Other  mounds 137 

Large  village-site 139 

Burials 140 

Other  habitation  sites 141 

Conclusions 142 

IX.  Earliest  Remains 

The  "Round  Grave  People" 147 

Discovery 147 

Stone  vessels 149 

Pottery 154 

Stonework 158 

Work  in  bone 161 

Distribution 164 

Relationship 166 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


Successors  of  the  "Round  Grave 

People" 167 

Resemblances  to  Cherokee 167 

Differences 168 

Probable  solution 169 

Merging  of  cultures 171 

X.  Remains  of  the  Cherokee:  Pottery 

Identification 172 

Distribution  of  pottery 173 

General  characteristics 175 

Pot-like  forms 177 

Bowls 183 

Bottles 186 

Effigy  vessels 187 

Polychrome  ware 189 

Uses  of  pottery 192 

Manufacture  of  pottery 195 

XI.  Remains   of    the   Cherokee:    Imple- 
ments and  Utensils 

General  character 205 

Hunting  and  war  equipment 206 

Arrowpoints  of  flint 207 

Arrowpoints  of  antler 209 

Bows  and  arrows 210 

Spears 211 

Knives 212 

Axes 213 

Fishing  tackle 215 

Agricultural  implements 217 

Implements  for  food  preparation.  218 
Clothing   and  implements  for  its 

manufacture 221 

Woodworking  tools 229 

Implements  for  stoneworking ....  233 

Tools  for  bonework . .  .  237 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CONTENTS 


Implements  for  shell-working ....  238 

Potters'  tools 239 

House  furnishings 240 

XII.  Remains  of  the  Cherokee:  Orna- 
ments, Pipes,  Games,  and  Cere- 
monial Objects 

In  general 243 

Ornaments 244 

Beads 244 

Pendants 252 

Ear-ornaments 257 

Paints 259 

Pipes 260 

Games 265 

Ceremonial  objects 269 

Objects  of  unknown  use 269 

XIII.  Summary 

Sites  explored 272 

Mounds 273 

Village-sites 275 

The  earliest  culture 276 

The  second  culture 278 

The  Cherokee  culture 281 

Pottery 283 

Stonework 284 

Bonework 285 

Shell  ornaments 286 

Copper 287 

Fabrics 287 

Pipes 288 

Conclusions  and  theories 289 

Notes 294 

Index .  300 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


10 

ILLUSTRATIONS 
PLATES 

PAGE 
I.  Typical  scene  on  upper  Tennessee 
river  Frontispiece 

ii.  Mounds  near  mouth  of  Little  Ten- 
nessee  river  in    1887.     (After 
Thomas)  34 

in.  Mound  group  on  the  Bussell  place, 
Lenoir  City,  Tenn  35 

IV.  Mound   1,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir 
City,  Tenn  36 

V.  Mound  3,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir 
City,  Tenn  37 

VI.  Sites  on  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island 
and  adjacent  mainland,  Lenoir 
.City,  Tenn  48 

vn.  Mainland      village-site,      Bussell 
place,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn  49 

vni.  Burials  found  in  the  exploration 
trench,    Mainland    village-site, 
Bussell    place,     Lenoir     City, 
Tenn.  50 

ix.  Typical  Cherokee  burial  in  rectan- 
gular grave,  Mainland  village- 
site,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn  51 

x.  Child   burial,   Mainland   village- 
site,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn  52 

INDIAN    NOTES 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


11 


xi.  Extended  Cherokee  burial,  Main- 
land village-site,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 53 

xn.  Burial  showing  heels  flexed  back 
against  hips,  Mainland  village- 
site,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn 54 

xiii.  Burial  with  three  pottery  vessels, 
Mainland  village-site,  Lenoir 
City,  Tenn 55 

xiv.  Burial  17,  showing  position  of 
tortoise-shell  pipe  case,  Main- 
land village-site,  Lenoir  City, 

Tenn 56 

xv.  Double  flexed   burial,   Mainland 

village-site,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn .     57 

xvi.  Double  extended  burial,  Main- 
land village-site,  Lenoir  City, 

Tenn 58 

xvn.  Burial  face-down  with  heels  flexed 
back  to  hips,  Mainland  village- 
site,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn 59 

xvni.  Tennessee  river  near  Lenoir  City, 
Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island  in 
center 64 

xix.  "Round  grave"  burials,  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 65 

xx.  "Round  grave"  burial,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 68 

xxi.  Trench  2,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  is- 
land, showing  arrangement  of 
burials,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn.  ...  69 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


12 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

xxn.  Cherokee    skeleton    with    three 
nested  pottery  vessels,  Lenoir 
or  BusselPs  island,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn     

76 

xxni.  Fragments  of  large  pottery  vessel 
in  situ,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  is- 
land, Lenoir  City,  Tenn  

77 

xxiv.  Tennessee  bottoms,  from  mound 
group,  Upper  Hampton  place, 
near  Rhea  Springs,  Tenn  

84 

xxv.  Part  of  Lower  Hampton   Place 
mound     group,     near      Rhea 
Springs,  Tenn  

85 

xxvi.  Mound  group,  Upper  Hampton 
place,  near  Rhea  Springs,  Term, 
xxvii.  Mound  2,  Upper  Hampton  Place 
mound     group,       near     Rhea 
Springs,  Tenn  

86 

87 

xxviii.  Circular  stone  grave,  Mound  2, 
Upper    Hampton    place,   near 
Rhea  Springs,  Tenn  

88 

xxix.  Extended  skeleton  in  Mound  2, 
Upper    Hampton    place,    near 
Rhea  Springs,  Tenn  

80 

-  xxx.  Arrangement  of  stones,  Mound  2, 
Upper    Hampton    place,    near 
Rhea  Springs,  Tenn  

00 

xxxi.  Hiwassee    island,    near    Dayton, 
Tenn.,    showing    situation    of 
mounds  and  habitation  sites.  .  . 
xxxii.  Burial  in  Mound  1,  Hiwassee  is- 
land,    near     Dayton,     Tenn., 
showing  positions  of  vessels  and 
implements  

94 
104 

INDIAN    NOTES 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

13 

xxxm.  Plan  of  Mound  2,  Hiwassee  is- 
land, near  Dayton,  Tenn....   108 
xxxiv.  Layers  of  musselshells  in  edge  of 
Mound  2,  Hiwassee  island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn  116 

xxxv.  Burial  in  Mound  2,  Hiwassee  is- 
land,    near     Dayton,     Tenn., 
showing  position  of  conch  cores 
and  implements    117 

xxxvi.  Skeleton    in    unusual    position, 
Mound  2,  Hiwassee  island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn  118 

xxxvn.  Burial  showing  position  of  large 
celt     and     discoidal      stones, 
Mound  2,  Hiwassee  island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn  1  19 

xxxvui.  Burial  showing  implements  and 
shell  gorget  in  situ,  Mound  2, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  120 

xxxix.  Cherokee  burial  showing  position 
of  pipe  near  skull,  Mound  2, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  121 

XL.  Cherokee  skeleton  clutching  shell 
gorget  in  right  hand,  Mound  2, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  124 

XLI.  Cherokee  skeleton   with  pottery 
vessel  and  small  celt,  Mound  2, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  125 

XLII.  Triple  burial,  Mound  2,  Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn  ....    126 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

14 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

XLIH.  Dog  burial,  Mound  2,  Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn.  ...   127 
XLIV.  Mound  5,  Hiwassee   island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn  128 

XLV.  Plan  of  burials  in  Mound  5,  Hi- 
wassee   island,    near    Dayton, 
Tenn.     c,   Original   mound   or 
nucleus;    B,    later    mound;    A, 
present  mound  132 

XLVI.  Cherokee  skeleton  in  unusual  po- 
sition, village-site,  Hiwassee  is- 
land  near  Dayton,  Tenn  134 

XLVII.  Characteristic    potsherds   of    the 
"Round    Grave"    culture,  Le- 
noir  City,  Tenn  154 

XLVIII.  Characteristic  arrowpoints  of  the 
"Round  Grave"  culture:  g,  h,j, 
from  Hiwassee  island;  remain- 
der from  the  Lenoir  City  sites.   155 

XLIX.  Cherokee  pottery  types  of  eastern 
Tennessee  178 

L.  Large  pottery  vessel,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's   island,    Lenoir    City, 
Tenn                    179 

LI.  Cherokee  potsherds:  a,  b,  e,  Hi- 
wassee island,  near  Dayton;  c, 
/,  Mainland  village-site;  d,  Bus- 
sell's  island,  near  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn          180 

LIT.  Pottery  vessel  with  handles,  show- 
ing incised  decoration,  Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn  181 

INDIAN    NOTES 

ILLUSTRATIONS 


15 


Lin.  Pottery  vessel  with  handles,  show- 
ing incised  decoration  and 
nodes,  Mainland  village-site, 
Lenoir  City,  Tenn 182 

LIV.  Pottery  vessel  suggesting  Iro- 
quoian  forms,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn.  183 
LV.  Cherokee  potsherds:  a,  b,  c,  Hi- 
wassee  island,  near  Dayton; 
d,  e,  f,  sites  near  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 184 

LVT.  Pottery  vessel,  unusual  form,  Le- 
noir or  Bussell's  island,  Lenoir 

City,  Tenn 185 

LVII.  Cherokee  potsherds:  a,  b,  /,  Hi- 
wassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn. ;  c,  d,  e,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island,  near  Lenoir  City,  Tenn .  186 
LVIII.  Bottle  of  earthenware,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 187 

LIX.  Pottery  vessel,  frog  effigy,  Main- 
land village-site,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn 188 

LX.  Pottery  bowls:  a,  bird  effigy;  b, 
with  lugs.  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn 189 

LXI.  Pottery  vessel,  fish  effigy,  Hiwas- 

see  island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn.  .   190 
LXII.  Potsherds,     painted     decoration, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 

Tenn 191 

LXIII.  Potter's  tools  of  the  modern 
Cherokee:  a,  c,  stamping  pad- 
dles; b,  smoothing  stone 196 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


16 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


LXIV.  Cherokee  woman  pounding  clay 

for  pottery 197 

LXV.  Rolling  the  coil  of  clay  prepara- 
tory to  making  a  pottery  vessel  200 

LXVI.  Applying  a  coil  to  the  base  of  the 

vessel 201 

Lxvn.  The  use  of  the  stamping  paddle .   202 
LXVIII.  Arranging  the  vessels  for  firing. . .    203 

LXIX.  Firing  the  clay  vessels 204 

LXX.  Flint  implements  of  the  Cherokee, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn 205 

LXXI.  Bone  implements  of  the  Cherokee: 

a,  c,    sites  near  Lenoir   City; 

b,  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn 210 

LXXII.  Flint  knife  of  the  Cherokee, 
Mainland  village-site,  Lenoir 
City,  Tenn 211 

LXXIII.  Cherokee  celts,  flat  type:  a,  c, 
sites  near  Lenoir  City;  b, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn 212 

LXXIV.  Cherokee  celts,  Hiwassee  island, 

near  Dayton,  Tenn 213 

LXXV.  Cherokee  awls  and  fishhook  of 
bone:  a,  f,  sites  near  Lenoir 
City;  remainder  from  Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn.  ...  214 

LXXVI.  Pestles  of  stone:  a,  "bell"  type, 
Wright's  Ferry,  near  Knoxville; 
b,  showing  upper  end  ground  to 
a  celt  edge,  Hiwassee  island, 
near  Dayton,  Tenn 215 


INDIAN    NOTES 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

17 

Lxxvn 

.  Pitted   stone  for  cracking   nuts, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  220 

LXXVIII 

.  Objects  of  bone  and  antler,  Che- 
rokee: a-d,  sites    near  Lenoir 
City;  e,  Hiwassee  island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn     .         221 

LXXIX 

.  Adze  blade  (a)  from  Hiwassee  is- 
land,  near   Dayton;    Grinding 
stone    (b)  from   Bussell   place, 
Lenoir  City,  Tenn  230 

LXXX 

LXXXI 
LXXXII 

.  Beads   and    perforated    cores    of 
conch-shell:  a,  c,  sites  near  Le- 
noir   City;    b,  d,  e,    Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn.  .  .  .   231 
.  Pendants  of  conch-shell,  Hiwassee 
island,  near  Dayton,  Tenn.  .  .  .  246 
.  Cherokee  ornaments  of  shell:  a-/, 
sites   near    Lenoir    City;    g—i, 
Hiwassee    island,  near  Dayton, 
Tenn  247 

Lxxxin 

.  Ornament    of      native      copper, 
mound  on  Bussell  place,  Lenoir 
City,  Tenn  254 

LXXXIV 

.   Pipes  of  the  Cherokee:  a,  of  sand- 
stone,    Mainland     village-site, 
Lenoir  City,  Tenn.:  b,  of  earth- 
enware, Hiwassee  island,  near 
Dayton,  Tenn  255 

LXXXV 

.  Discoidal  stones:  a,  Hiwassee  is- 
land,   near  Dayton;  b,   Main- 
land   village-site,  Lenoir  City, 
Tenn  264 

LXXXVI 

.  Discoidal  stones,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island,  Lenoir  City,  Tenn.  265 

A 

ND    MONOGRAPHS 

18 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


FIGURES  PAGE 

1.  Section   of  Mound   1,   Bussell    place, 

Lenoir  City 37 

2.  Plan  of  Mound  1,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir 

City 39 

3.  Section  of  Mound  2,  Bussell  place,  Le- 

noir City 41 

4.  Plan  of  Mound  2,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir 

City 42 

5.  Position  of  flint  knife  beneath  skull, 

Burial  21,  Mainland  village-site,  Le- 
noir City 58 

6.  Diagtammatic  section  of  Great  Midden, 

Lenoir   or    Bussell's   island,   Lenoir 
City 70 

7.  Burials  in  Trench  1,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 

island,  Lenoir  City 74 

8.  Burials  in  Trench  3,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 

island,  Lenoir  City 75 

9.  Mound  group,  Upper  Hampton  place, 

near  Rhea  Springs 85 

10.  Plan  of  Mound  2,  Upper  Hampton  place, 

near  Rhea  Springs 88 

11.  Diagrammatic  section  of  Mound  2,  Hi- 

wassee  island,  as  first  built 109 

12.  Diagrammatic    section    of    Mound    2, 

Hiwassee  island,  as  found  in  1919.  .    110 

13.  Section  of  Mound  5,  showing  shell  lay- 

ers, each  marking  a  stage  in  its  con- 
struction    130 

14.  Section  of  Mound  5,  showing  a  grave 

dug  from  the  surface  of  the  later 
mound 131 

15.  Types  of  stone  vessels:  a,  Kentucky;  b, 

Tennessee. . .  .   1 50 


INDIAN    NOTES 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


19 


16.  Fragment  of  decorated  steatite  vessel, 

"Round  Grave"  culture,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island 151 

17.  Gorget   of   steatite,    "Round  Grave" 

culture,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island. .   152 

18.  Sinker  (?)  of  steatite,  "Round  Grave" 

culture,  Hiwassee  island 153 

19.  Type  of  pottery  vessel  used  by    the 

"Round  Grave  people,"  determined 
from  fragments 154 

20.  Textiles  of  the  "Round  Grave  people" 

as  shown  by  imprints  on  their  pottery  156 

21.  Gorget  of  the  "Round  Grave"  culture, 

Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island 160 

22.  Bone    awls  of    the  "Round    Grave" 

culture,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island  ...   162 

23.  Bracer  of  bone,  "Round  Grave"  cul- 

ture, Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island.  . .  .    163 

24.  Lynx-teeth,  perforated  for  suspension, 

"Round  Grave"  culture,  Lenoir    or 
Bussell's  island 163 

25.  Handles  of  pottery  vessels  from  Hiwas- 

see island,  and  the  Mainland  village- 
site 178 

26.  Effigies  of  the  human  face  used  as  rim 

decoration,     Hiwassee     island     and 
Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island 182 

27.  Pottery  bowl,  cazuela  type,  found  at 

Lenoir  island  by  Emmert.  (After  Mac- 
Curdy) 184 

28.  Restoration  of  pottery  "salt-paji" 186 

29.  Bird-head  effigy  from  pottery  vessel, 

Hiwassee  island. . .  .188 


20 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


30.  Vessel  of  polychrome  ware,  collected  by 

C.    B.   Moore     near    Chattanooga. 
(After  Moore) 189 

31.  Fragment  of  a  polychrome  vessel  from 

Hiwassee  island,  and  restoration  of 
the  same 191 

32.  Small  pottery  vessel,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 

island 193 

33.  Modeling  tool  or  trowel  of  earthenware, 

restored,  Hiwassee   island 194 

34.  Pot-cover  made  from  a  sherd,  Lenoir 

or  Bussell's  island 195 

35.  Arrowpoint    of  deer-antler,    Hiwassee 

island 210 

36.  Hafted  celt  found  near  Chattanooga. 

(After  MacCurdy) 214 

37.  Pestle  of  stone,  Hiwassee  island 220 

38.  Cherokee  textiles  as  shown  by  imprints 

on  potsherds 223 

39.  Scraper  of  flint,  Hiwassee  island 225 

40.  Flint  core  from  which  many  flakes  have 

been  struck,  Hiwassee  island 226 

41.  Rude  bone  awl  with  rounded  base,  Le- 

noir or  Bussell's  island 227 

42.  Bone  implements  of  unusual  form,  Le- 

noir or  Bussell's  island 228 

43.  Flint  knife,  Hiwassee  island 232 

44  Flaking  tool  of  antler,  Hiwassee  island .   234 

45.  Fragment  of  matting,  Mound  at  Le- 

noir City 241 

46.  Cherokee  textile,  probably  part  of  a 

bag;  from  an  imprint  on  a  potsherd .  241 

47.  Beads  of  Olivella  shell  as  arranged  on 

a  garment,  Hiwassee  island 245 


INDIAN   NOTES 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

21 

48.  Bead  of  Oliva  shell,  Mainland  village- 
site    .              245 

49.  Beads  of  shell  from  various  sites  248 

50.  Small  shell  beads  resembling  wampum, 
Mainland  village-site     249 

51.  Disc-bead  of  shell,  Hiwassee  island.  .  .  .  249 
52.  Pearl  beads,  Mainland  village-site.  .  .  .   250 
53.  Bone  bead,  Hiwassee  island  251 

54.  Beads  of  sheet-copper,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island  251 

55.  Unfinished  object  of  shell,  perhaps  a 
pendant,  Mainland  village-site  256 

56.  Pendant  made  of  a  bear's  tooth,  Main- 
land village-site            254 

57.  Carved  pendant  of  stone,  Hiwassee  is- 
land    254 

58.  Pendant  or  jingler  of  sheet-copper  with 
pearl  bead  attached,  Lenoir  or  Eus- 
sell's  island  256 

59.  Fragment  of  limonite  scraped  for  paint, 
Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island  ...  .   260 
60.  Cherokee   pipe  of  earthenware,  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island  261 

61.  Cherokee   pipe  of  earthen  vare,  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island  262 

62.  Pipe  forms  used  by  the  Cherokee.  .  .  .  263 
63.  Gaming    stones.    Lenoir  or     Bussell's 
island  and  Hiwassee  island  267 

64.  Perforated  disc  of  pottery,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island  268 

65.  Perforated  musselshell,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island  270 

66.  "Boat-stone"    of   steatite,    Hiwassee 
island  271 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

23 

FOREWORD 

FOR  the  reasons  presented  in   the 
__^^     introduction   to   this  volume,   it 

ffHlfl     appeared  important  that  a  study 

of  the  archeology  of  Tennessee 
river  between  Nashville  and  Chattanooga 
should  be  made;  and  through  the  sugges- 
tion and  aid  of  Mr  Clarence  B.  Moore,  a 
Trustee  of  this  Museum,  the  expedition  — 
the  results  of  which  are  embodied  in  the 
present  volume  —  was  made  possible.    Al- 
though Tennessee  river  between  the  cities 
mentioned  was  reconnoitered  for  archeo- 
logical  sites,  the  actual  work  was  confined 
to  that  part  lying  between  its  tributaries, 
the  Little  Tennessee  and  Hiwassee  rivers,  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  two  miles.    The 
research  along  this  particular  part  of  the 
river  was  conducted  by  Mr  Harrington, 

INDIAN    NOTES 

24 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

assisted  by  Mr  Charles  O.  Turbyfill,  be- 
tween August  and  December,  1919. 
GEORGE   G.  HEYE, 
Director 

INDIAN    NOTES 

25 

CHEROKEE  AND  EARLIER 
REMAINS   ON    UPPER 
TENNESSEE  RIVER 
By  M.   R.  HARRINGTON 

I.  THE   UPPER  TENNESSEE  VALLEY 

• 

FROM  the  aboriginal  point  of  view, 
^_  ^^     the  valley  of  the  upper  Tennessee 

river  (pi.  i)  from  the  vicinity  of 

Chattanooga  eastward  must  have 
been  unusually    attractive    as  a  place    of 
habitation.     Its   climate,   rarely    severe  in 
winter  and  seldom  excessively  hot  in  sum- 
mer, was  and  is  most  agreeable.  The  great 
river    itself    furnished    fish,    mussels,    and 
turtles  in  abundance,  and  also  constituted 
not  only  a  natural  migration  route,  but  a 
highway  for  ready  transportation  and  trade 
between  the  tribes  which  at  different  times 
settled  along  it,  and  others  to  the  south  and 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

26 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

west.     The   fertile   bottom-lands,    through 

which  the  stream  threads  its  meandering 

course,  still  yield  abundant  corn  crops  to 

the  modern  farmer,  as  they  undoubtedly 

did  to  his    Indian    predecessors;  and  the 

once  plentiful  supply  of  game  commenced 

to  disappear  only  within  the  memory  of 

men  now  living. 

SIGNS  OF  ANCIENT  OCCUPANCY 

That    the   tribesmen   appreciated    these 

natural   advantages   is   evident   from   the 

immense  number  of  sites  showing  ancient 

occupancy  which  may  be  found  scattered 

along  the  banks  of  the  river  and  its  tribu- 

taries, large  and  small,  and  on  its  islands  — 

sites  marked  in  some  instances  merely  by  a 

few  stones  broken  by  the  action  of  fire, 

scattering  flint  chips,  and  occasional  arrow- 

Doints;  in  others  by  beds  of  camp  refuse 

or    middens,    including    blackened    earth. 

charcoal,     ashes,    decaying     musselshells, 

the  split  bones  of  wild  animals,  numerous 

Tagments  of  pottery,  and  frequent  imple- 

ments of  stone  and  bone,  whole  and  broken, 

resides  the  fire-cracked  stones,  chips,  and 

INDIAN    NOTES 

SIGNS    OF   OCCUPANCY 

27 

Doints  just  mentioned.    Sometimes,   espe- 

cially   in    the   district   lying   between   Hi- 

wassee  island  and  Lenoir  City,  and  from  this 

point  up  the  Little  Tennessee  river,  these 

sites  are  also  marked  by  mounds  which  occur 

singly  or  in  groups. 

FORMER  EXPLORATIONS 

As  might  be  expected  in  a  region  show- 

ing such  abundant  traces  of  ancient  occu- 

pancy, this  district  has  been  by  no  means 

neglected  archeologically,  having  been  the 

scene,  at  different  times,  of  a  number  of 

expeditions,    among    which    perhaps    the 

earliest  was  the  work  undertaken  by  the 

Rev.  E.  O.  Dunning,  about  1869,  for  the 

Peabody    Museum    of    Harvard    and    the 

Peabody  Museum  of  Yale,  and  reported 

on    by    MacCurdy.1    Another    important 

exploration  was  made  about  1887    by  Mr 

J.  W.  Emmert  for  the  Bureau  of  American 

Ethnology  and  was  described  by  Thomas;2 

while  the    latest  of  importance  was  that 

conducted   by  Mr   Clarence  B.   Moore  in 

1914  and  1915,  and  described  by  him  in  his 

Aboriginal  Sites  on  Tennessee  River.3 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

28 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

INCEPTION   OF   THE    PRESENT   WORK 

In  his  introduction   to   the  work  men- 

tioned, Mr  Moore  states: 

"Beginning  at  Hiwassee  Island  in  eastern 
Tennessee,  and  continuing  up  the  river  to  Le- 
noir  City,  a  distance  of  101  miles  by  water,  in 
almost    continuous    sequence    are    groups    of 
mounds,  blunt  cones  in  shape,  few  more  than 
10  or  11  feet  in  height  and  most  much  less 
than   that.  These  mounds,   erected   for  burial 

purposes,  in  all  probability  contain,   so  far  as 
is  known,  but  few  artifacts  in  connection  with 
the  burials,  which  are  but  sparsely  encountered 
in  them.     They  have  been  largely  dug  into  in 
a  limited  way,  by  people  having  an  exagger- 
ated idea  of  the  value  of  Indian  objects     .    .    ." 

Now,   Mr   Moore's   visit    to    the   region 

mentioned  was  a  hurried  one,  owing  to  the 

rapid  fall  of  the  river  at  that  time,  which 

made  it  imperative  for  him  to  make  a  rapid 

survey  only  and  to  leave  before  the  steamer 

from  which  the  explorations  were  conducted 

should  be  stranded.     Although  the  limited 

excavations   made   by   him   conveyed    the 

impression    expressed    in    the    paragraph 

quoted  above,  certainty  was  lacking;  hence 

to  procure  further  data  on  the  subject,  the 

Museum   of    the   American   Indian,    Heye 

INDIAN    NOTES 

EXPLORATION 

29 

Foundation,    undertook    an    archeological 

exploration  of  the  region,  the  present  writer 

being  selected  to  conduct  the  excavations. 

RESULTS  OF  THE  WORK 

While   few   of    the    specimens   obtained 

during  the  course  of  our  investigation  repre- 

sent types  not  already  described  and  illus- 

trated by   Moore,4  MacCurdy,5  Thomas,6 

and  others,  the  additional  data  we  secured 

bearing  on  the  material  culture  of  the  "Over- 

hill"   Cherokee,   on   the  builders  of   these 

particular   mounds,   on    the   relative   ages 

of  the  different  forms  of  interment,  and  on 

the  succession  of  cultures  in  this  part  of 

the  Tennessee  valley,  may  perhaps  prove 

of  value.     These  will  be  considered  at  length 

in  our  final  chapters;  for  the  present  it  is 

necessary  only  to  state  that  most  of  the 

artifacts  recovered  by  the  expedition,  and 

the  majority   of   the   burials   encountered 

in  mounds  and  cemeteries,  may  undoubtedly 

be  referred  to  the  Cherokee  who  were  found 

in  full  possession  of  this  district  by   the 

first  European  visitors;  that  another  and 

older  class  of  burials  is  of  doubtful  origin, 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

30 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

but  may,  from  the  scant  evidence  at  hand, 

be    also    Cherokee,    but    representing    an 

earlier  period;  and,  finally,  that  in  some 

places  appear  indications  of  a  different  and 

possibly  Algonkian  people  who   preceded 

the  Cherokee  wherever  their  comparative 

antiquity  could  be  studied. 

EXPLORATION  COMMENCED 

Although    the   principal    district    to    be 

explored  lay  from  Lenoir  City  down-stream, 

it  was  considered  advisable  to  start  from 

Knoxville,  as  here  there  was  more  chance 

of  procuring  a  suitable  boat  and  of  pur- 

chasing the  necessary  outfit  and  supplies. 

So    the    writer    proceeded    to    Knoxville, 

arriving  August  1,  1919,  and  meeting  at 

this  point  Mr  C.  O.  Turbyfill,  also  a  mem- 

ber of  the  Museum  staff,  who  accompanied 

the  writer  throughout  the  trip. 

Considerable  delay  was  encountered  in 

obtaining  a  houseboat  large  enough  to  ac- 

commodate the  party,  yet  not  too  large  to 

maneuver  with  oars  should  occasion  arise, 

in  altering  it  to  suit  our  purpose,  in  getting 

INDIAN    NOTES 

EXPLORATION 

31 

our  stock  of  provisions  stowed  aboard,  and 

in  engaging  a  man  to  serve  as  cook  and  gen- 

eral assistant;  hence  it  was  not  until  the 

morning  of  August  8  that  we  finally  cast 

off  our  moorings,   and,   all  hands  at   the 

sweeps,  pulled  our  clumsy  craft  out  upon 

the  rolling  yellow  waters  of  the  Tennessee. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  recount  in  de- 

tail the  incidents  of  that  eventful  trip,  our 

adventures  with  baffling  headwinds,  rocks, 

and  treacherous  rapids,  and  numerous  and 

vexatious   delays.     Sufficient  it  is  to  state 

that  on  the  fourth  day  our  cook  decamped 

with  all  the  money  and  valuables  he  could 

lay  hands  on,  and  several  days  were  lost  in 

trying  to  catch  him  and  in  hiring  another 

man,  so  that  we  did  not  arrive  at  Lenoir 

City  until  August  16. 

FIRST  SITES  VISITED 

We  examined  the  banks  of  the  river  from 

time  to  time  en  route,  visited  several  sites 

partially  explored  by   Mr  Moore,   among 

which   the  most  favorable  in   appearance 

was  the  extensive  village  and  burial  site 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

32 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  at  the  head 

of  Little  River  shoals,7  owned  by  Mr  R. 

A.  Sharp,  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  a  similar 

though  not  so  extensive  a  site  on  Prater's 

or  Maxey's  island.8    Both  were  in  corn  at 

the  time  of  our  visit,  and  could  not  be 

worked. 

CAVES  AND  ROCK-SHELTERS 

We    were    also    successful    in    locating 

several  rock-shelters  and  caves  in  a  high 

bluff  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  about 

a  mile  and  a  half  below  the  little  village 

of  Louisville,  but  the  largest  and  best  of 

these  had  been  thoroughly  dug  out,  by  whom 

or  for  what  purpose  we  could  not  learn, 

and  the  others  contained  but  scant  traces 

of  habitation,  test-holes  showing  merely  a 

few  potsherds   and   split   deer-bones,   not 

enough   to  warrant  further  excavation. 

Another  small  shelter  was  observed  just 

above  the  large  spring  on  the  left  bank  of 

the  river,  a  short  distance  below  Prater's 

Ferry.     This    showed    abundant    signs    of 

occupancy  in  the  form  of  decaying  mussel- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CAVES  —  ROCK-SHELTERS 

33 

shells  and  of  flint  chips  and  potsherds  clearly 
visible  on  the  surface,  but  as  digging  here 
would  have  muddied  the  waters  of  the 
spring,  sole  source  of  supply  for  several 
families,  it  was  not  attempted. 

•  • 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

34 

II.  MOUNDS    NEAR    LENOIR    CITY 

*TT*1HE  account  and  the  map  (pi.  n) 
of  the  mounds  near  Lenoir  City 
mfl^ljj    in  Loudon  county,  Tenn.,  pub- 

lished   in    the    Twelfth    Annual 
Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Eth- 
nology,9 had  prepared  us  to  find  at  least 
nine  mounds  on  the  point  between  Little 
Tennessee  river  and  the  Tennessee  itself 
(called  Holston  river  at  the  time  the  report 
was  published),  and  we  were  therefore  dis- 
appointed to  find  but  six  remaining  when 
we  visited  the  place,  of  which  three  seemed 
to  have  been  pretty  well  torn  to  pieces  by 
previous  diggers.    A  close  examination  of 
the  remaining  three,  however,  showed  but 
slight  traces  of  disturbance,  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  attempt  their  excavation,  if  the 
owner  would  permit  it. 
We  found  the  owner,  Mr  J.  W.  Bussell, 
of  Lenoir  City,  and  his  sons,  who  have  di- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

LENOIR    CITY    MOUNDS 


35 


rect  charge  of  the  plantation,  willing  to  have 
the  mounds  explored,  providing  we  would 
agree  to  demolish  and  level  them  completely 
so  that  the  field  where  they  stood  might  be 
more  easily  cultivated.  To  this  we  ac- 
quiesced, and  lost  no  time  in  commencing 
operations,  with  the  help  of  Mr  George 
Ivins,  a  resident  of  the  vicinity,  and  several 
colored  laborers. 

The  three  mounds,  as  may  be  seen  by  our 
map  (pi.  in),  stand  in  such  manner  as  to 
mark  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle,  on  the 
eastern  end  of  a  knoll  which,  lying  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  east  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Little  Tennessee,  constitutes  the 
highest  point  of  the  ridge  dividing  the  two 
streams.  They  seem  to  correspond  with 
numbers  4,  5,  and  6  of  Thomas's  map,  which 
we  reproduce  in  pi.  n.  The  Bureau  ex- 
plorer, who  was  Mr  J.  W.  Emmert,  says  of 
no.  4  (our  no.  3),  that  it  was  "42  ft.  in 
diameter,  3|  ft.  high,  was  excavated,  and. 
like  all  the  upland  mounds  in  this  section, 
consisted  wholly  of  red  clay.  It  contained 
neither  skeleton  nor  relic,"  and  also,  "Nos. 
5  and  6  [our  2  and  1]  were  opened  and 


36 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

found   to  consist  as  usual  of  red  clay  with  a 

few  human  bones  in  each."    Our  excavations 

revealed  the  fact  that  his  opening  of  the  last 

two  consisted  in  sinking  a  small  shaft  in  the 

center  of  each,  and  that  his  "excavation" 

of  the  first  means  that  he  had  driven  a  trench 

from  one  side  of  the  tumulus  to  a  point  just 

beyond  its  center,  and  that  the  reason  he 

found  "neither  skeleton  nor  relic"  was  be- 

cause he  did  not  carry  his  digging  quite  far 

enough,  as  will  appear  later. 

FORM  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  MOUND  1 

It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  with 

the  exception  of  this  one  mound,  we  too 

found  the  results  disappointing.     We  com- 

menced digging  in  the  tumulus  listed  by 

Thomas   as   Mound   6,   but   called   by   us 

Mound  1  (shown  in  pi.  iv),  which  was  the 

largest,    measuring  about  56    ft.    in    dia- 

meter, with  an  almost  circular  outline,  and 

although  plowed  over  many  times,  still  re- 

taining a  height  of  nearly  5|  ft.     The  dig- 

ging had  not  progressed  far  when  we  dis- 

covered that  the  foundation  of  the  tumulus 

consisted  of  a  layer,  reaching  a  depth  of  2.2 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND  1 


37 


ft.  in  the  middle,  of 
dark  compact  soil,  rest- 
ing on  the  solid  red  clay 
of  the  hilltop,  capped 
with  a  mixed  layer  of 
yellowish-brown  surface 
soil  which  composed  the 
rest  of  the  mound.  In 
this,  on  a  level  about  8 
in.  above  the  dark 
layer  just  mentioned, 
were  occasional  patches 
showing  the  effects  of 
burning,  and  the  cap  of 
surface  soil  combined 
more  admixture  of  clay 
on  the  western  than 
on  the  eastern  side. 
Throughout  were  scat- 
tered bits  of  charcoal 
and  flint  chips.  The 
arrangement  of  layers 
may  be  seen  in  the  sec- 
tion (fig.  1) ,  which  shows 
them  continuous  from 
side  to  side  as  originally 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


38 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

laid  down,  and  not  broken  in  the  middle  by 

the  previous  investigator's  shaft,  as  we  found 

them.    The  material  for  the  mound  seems 

to  have  come  in  part  from  a  trench  at  the 

base  surrounding  it,  except  on  the  extreme 

northern  edge  —  a  trench  still  12  to  14  in. 

deep  in  spite  of  years  of  plowing. 

CONTENTS 

Seven  burials  were  encountered  in  this 

mound,  all  in  very  bad  condition,  distribu- 

ted as  shown  in  the  plan  (fig.  2),  at  depths 

which  ranged  from  a  foot  below  the  surface 

to  about  six  feet,  one  at  this  latter  depth  be- 

ing found,  for  which  a  grave  had  been  dug 

into  the  red  clay  subsoil  to  a  depth  of  eight 

inches.    As  may  be  seen  in  fig.  2,  three  of 

the  four  skeletons  whose  positions   could 

still  be  determined  headed  in  a  generally 

westerly  direction,  while  one  headed  south, 

all  being  flexed  on  the  right  side.    As  for 

the  other  three,  no.  1  showed  bare  traces 

only  of  bone;  in  no.  3  the  remains  had  ap- 

parently first  been  cremated  and  the  ashes 

and  calcined  fragments  of  the  skeleton  then 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND  1 


39 


gathered  and  placed  in  the  bottom  of  a  pit 
in  the  mound,  where  we  found  them  mixed 
with  bits  of  charcoal  and  charred  cane, 
burnt  earth,  flint  chips,  and  a  few  rude, 


FIG.  2. — Plan  of  Mound  1,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir  City. 
The  area  marked  "shaft"  represents  a  former  excavation. 


irregular  arrowpoints  cracked  by  the  heat; 
and  no.  6  comprised  the  disjointed  and 
broken  bones  of  an  adult  and  a  child  scat- 
tered over  an  area  perhaps  a  yard  square. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


40 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

Only  two  of  the  burials,  besides  no.  3 

described  above,  were  accompanied  with 

any  artifacts  whatsoever;  these  were  no.  4, 

which  had  two  triangular  arrowpoints  and 

several  chips  and  flint  fragments  near  the 

right  shoulder;  and  no.  7  which  had,  in  a 

similar  position,  not  only  two  triangular 

arrowheads,  but  a  carefully  worked  stone 

resembling  a  thick  gorget  (pi.  LXXIX,  b),  yet 

without  perforations;  a  broken  flint  drill, 

four  or  five  unfinished  points,  and  many 

flint  chips.    That  there  was  probably  at 

least  one  additional  burial  may  be  inferred 

from  the  fact  that  Thomas  reports  "human 

bones"  in  the  shaft   dug  by  Mr  Emmert. 

FORM  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  MOUND  2 

The   second   mound    (Thomas's   no.    5) 

measured  54  ft.  from  east  to  west  and  48  ft. 

from  north  to  south,  with  a  height  of  about 

4    ft.    above    the    surrounding    field.    Its 

structure  differed  slightly  from  that  of  the 

first,  as  seen  in  our  section  (fig.  3),  for  at  the 

bottom,  on  the  red  hardpan  (A)  lay  the  orig- 

inal dark  surface  soil  of  the  hill  (B),  undis- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND    2 


41 


turbed  except  where 
penetrated  by  two 
graves,  one  of  which 
appears  in  the  sec- 
tion (c),  the  mound 
proper  being  built 
of  mixed  soil  (E), 
like  no.  1.  Unlike 
it,  however,  Mound 
2  seemed  to  have 
been  capped  with  a 
layer  of  clay,  which, 
although  plowed  off 
from  the  top,  may 
still  be  seen  on  the 
sides  (FF).  Like  no. 
1,  it  was  nearly  sur- 
rounded by  a  ditch 
(GG),  from  which  at 
least  part  of  the  ma- 
terial composing  it 
had  been  derived. 
The  probable  orig- 
inal contour  is 
shown  by  the  dotted 
line  H. 


II 

..i 

is 

Si- 
ll 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


42 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


CONTENTS 

The  contents  of  this  second  mound  was 
even  less  satisfactory,  for  not  one  of  its 
ten  burials  was  accompanied  (with  the  ex- 


FIG.  4. — Plan  of  Mound  2,  Bussell  place,  Lenoir  City. 
The  area  marked  "shaft"  represents  a  former  excavation. 


ception  of  one  arrowpoint)  with  relics  of 
any  kind.  The  arrangement  of  these 
skeletons  may  be  seen  in  fig.  4,  in  which  it 
will  be  noticed  that  there  was  no  uniformity 


INDIAN    NOTES 


MOUND    2 


43 


of  orientation,  and  that  while  some  were 
flexed  on  the  right  side,  as  in  the  preceding 
mound,  this  was  not  general.  Two  of  the 
burials  were  represented  by  skulls  only. 
Depths  varied  from  1.3  ft.,  in  the  case  of 
Burial  15,  to  the  deep  grave  (9)  which  ex- 
tended into  the  subsoil  to  a  level  5.9  ft. 
below  the  surface  of  the  mound.  Although 
few  traces  of  bone  and  no  artifacts  at  all 
were  found  in  this  grave,  it  appeared  to  have 
been  the  first  burial  made  in  the  mound — 
in  fact,  the  grave  had  been  dug  down  from 
the  original  surface  through  the  top  soil 
into  the  red-clay  hardpan  beneath,  and  the 
earth  taken  from  it  piled  around  the  hole; 
then  the  body  had  been  lowered  into  place 
and  the  mound  raised  over  it  without 
throwing  back  the  original  earth  that  had 
come  from  the  grave  (fig.  3,  DD).  The  other 
graves  seemed  to  have  been  dug  down  from 
the  surface  of  the  tumulus  after  its  erection. 
As  in  the  preceding  mound,  all  the 
skeletons  were  found  in  very  bad  condition 
through  decay,  conveying  the  impression 
of  considerable  antiquity,  and  flint  chips  and 
bits  of  charcoal  were  scattered  throughout. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


44 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

Both  mounds  contained  occasional  sherds 

of   quite   thin,   but   rather   poorly   made, 

porous  pottery,  apparently  fragments  of  an 

almost    globular    type   of   cooking-pot    of 

which   we    afterward    found  complete  ex- 

amples in  some  of  the  later  graves. 

FORM  AND  STRUCTURE  OF  MOUND  3 

The  third  mound  of  this  group  (Thomas's 

no.  4)  measured  50  by  52  ft.,  with  a  height 

of  4.5  ft.,  and,  like  the  others,  was  nearly 

surrounded  by  a  ditch  from  which  some, 

at  least,  of  its  material  had  been  obtained 

(pi.  v).    Its  structure  was  very  much  like 

that  of  Mound  2,  except  that,  while  there 

was  no  trace  of  a  clay  cap  on  the  mound, 

there  was  a  somewhat  larger  proportion  of 

red  clay  mixed  throughout  the  soil  of  which 

it  was  built. 

CONTENTS 

One  grave,  and  one  only,  was  found  in  this 

mound,  which,  like  the  others,  we  com- 

pletely demolished;  and  as  Mr    Emmert, 

the  representative  of  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 

nology,  discovered   none,   it    seems   most 

INDIAN   NOTES 

MOUND    3 

45 

probable  that  there  never  had  been  more. 

This  solitary  burial  lay  on  the  red  hardpan 

about  eleven  feet  west  and  a  little  north  of 

the  center  of  the  tumulus,   and  for  this 

reason   was   missed   by   our   predecessor's 

trench.     Only  parts  of  the  skull  and  long- 

bones  remained,  but  there  was  enough  to 

indicate  that  the  body  had  lain  flexed  to 

the  right,  and  had  headed  southeast  by  east. 

On  the  spot  where  the  breast  had  been,  was 

a  squarish  ornament  of  native  copper  (pi. 

Lxxxin),  about  5  in.  in  diameter,  with  a 

row  of  little  bosses  about  the  edge  and  a 

hole  in  the  center.    Beneath  it  lay  a  small 

piece  of  matting  preserved  by  the  copper 

salts  (fig.  45).    In  all  probability  the  mound 

had  been  raised  to  honor  this  single  in- 

dividual. 

CONCLUSIONS 

So  few  were  the  specimens  found  in  these 

mounds  that  conclusions  are  difficult.  The 

exclusive   use   of   the    triangular    stemless 

arrowpoint,  however,  suggests  the  Cherokee, 

and  the  positions  of  the  skeletons  are  not 

different  from  those  observed  in  graves  of  a 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

46 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

later  period  that  are  certainly  Cherokee. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  copper  ornament, 

resembling  a  specimen  in  the  Joseph  Jones 

collection,  from  Jackson  county,  Alabama, 

in  the  Museum  of  the  American  Indian, 

Heye  Foundation,  seems  to  connect  these 

Indians  with  a  culture  which  Mr  William 

Edward   Myer,   of   Nashville,    regards   as 

Siouan  —  a  people  who  left  many  remains 

in  central  Tennessee  and  eastward  at  least 

as  far  as  the  vicinity  of  Chattanooga.    These 

questions  will  be  more  fully  considered  in 

our  final  chapters. 

INDIAN   NOTES 

47 

III.  MAINLAND  VILLAGE-SITE 
SITUATION 

D^  URING  our  work  in  the  mounds 
last  described,  we  left  our  house- 

Tennessee  river  a  few  yards  above 
its  mouth,  and  from  this  point  walked  to 
the    excavations,    our    path    crossing    the 
bottoms  and  then  leading  up  a  steep  but 
short  incline  to  the  first  terrace.    Here,  on 
the  very  point  of  this  terrace,  lying  between 
the  Big  and  Little  Tennessee  rivers  and 
adjoining  one  of  Mr  BusselTs  barns,  we  often 
noticed,  in  passing,  a  considerable  deposit 
of   decaying   musselshells   and   black   dirt 
extending  over  perhaps  half  an  acre.    We 
realized,  of  course,  that  these  things  signified 
the  site  of  an  Indian  village,  but  having 
seen  many  such  in  the  neighborhood,  we 
gave  the  matter  little  attention  until  we 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

48 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

noticed  one  evening  that  the  place  had  been 

plowed  during  the  day. 

CEMETERY  FOUND 

Walking  along  a  "dead  furrow"  to  see 

whether  the  plow  had  turned  out  anything 

of  interest,  the  writer  suddenly  came  on  a 

few  minute  but  unmistakable  fragments  of 

human  bone,  and  a  little  scratching  with  a 

trowel  revealed  the  fact  that  the  plow,  run- 

ning this  time  a  little  deeper  than  usual,  had 

struck,  and  partly  torn  from  its  resting 

place,  an  adult  skeleton,  and,  not  far  away, 

the  skeleton  of  a  child.    This  suggested  the 

presence  of  a  cemetery.    As  the  weather 

was  too  dry  to  sow  the  oats  for  which  the 

plowing  had  been  the  first  step  of  prepara- 

tion, Mr  Bussell  consented  to  let  us  excavate 

here.    We  laid  the  mound  work  aside  for 

the  time  to  take  advantage  of  this  oppor- 

tunity, and  called  the  place  the  "Mainland 

village-site"    to    distinguish    it    from    the 

larger  village-  and  burial-site  on  Lenoir's 

or  Bussell's  island,  also  part  of  the  same 

plantation.    The   respective   situations   of 

both  sites  are  shown  in  our  map  (pi.  vi), 

INDIAN   NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


SITES    ON     LENOIR    OR     BUSSELL'S    ISLAND    AND    ADJACENT 
MAINLAND.    LENOIR  CITY,  TENNESSEE 


CEMETERY 

49 

while  the  appearance  of  the  site  as  the  first 

two  burials  were  being  uncovered  may  be 

seen  in  pi.  vn. 

THE  EXCAVATIONS 

Starting   a   short   distance  southeast  of 

these  burials,  a  trench  about  30  ft.  wide  was 

dug  northwestward  along  the  brow  of  the 

bluff,  and  was  carried  to  a  distance  of  85  ft., 

encountering   in    all   22   burials;   but   was 

stopped  at  this  point,  at  the  owner's  re- 

quest, for  a  rain,  opportune  for  him  but  not 

for  us,  had  made  possible  the  sowing  of 

oats.     On  starting  this  trench  we  found  a 

village   layer,   averaging   about   20   in.   in 

depth,  but  sometimes  attaining  as  much  as 

30  in.,  composed  as  usual  of  blackened  soil 

containing    many    decaying    musselshells; 

stones  broken  by  the  action  of  fire;  the  split 

bones  of  wild  animals;  numerous  potsherds; 

broken,  unfinished,  and  occasionally  perfect 

implements  of  stone  and  bone,  and  many 

fragments  and  chips  of  flint;  while  fragments 

of  soapstone  cooking  vessels  were  abundant- 

in   the   lower   portion.    The   graves   were 

found  either  within  this  layer  or  beneath 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

50  . 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

it  in  the  underlying  red-clay  subsoil.     Their 

distribution  and  the  respective  positions  of 

the  different  skeletons  may  be  seen  in  the 

plan    (pi.  vm),  in  which  the  outlines  of 

the  graves,  whenever  these  penetrated  the 

subsoil  and  their  form  could  be  determined, 

are  also  indicated. 

TYPES  OF  GRAVES 

The  graves  resolved  themselves  into  two 

distinct   types,   the  most  numerous  being 

of  the  ordinary  rectangular  form  (of  which 

there  were  19)  which  we  later  identified  with 

the    Cherokee    culture,    while    the    rarer, 

circular    form,    represented    here   by   only 

three  examples,  was  clearly  very  much  older, 

for  the  earth  filling  them  was  much  more 

compact    than    that    filling    the    ordinary 

graves,  and  the  bones  were   so   far  gone 

through  decay  that  for  the  greater  part  they 

were  barely  traceable  —  a  decided  contrast 

to  the  others. 

THE  CIRCULAR  TYPE 

•  In  only  one  case  was  there  enough  of  a 

skeleton  left  in  a  circular  grave  on  this  site 

to  determine  its  position;  it  had  been  very 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


fc 
Dog 


Dog 


I 


Ash-pit  2 


4 


BURIALS  FOUND  IN  THE  EXPLORATION  TRENCH.    MAINLAND 
VILLAGE-SITE.    BUSSELL   PLACE.    LENOIR  CITY.   TENNESSEE 


TYPES    OF    GRAVES 

51 

tightly  flexed  on  its  left  side,  heading  west- 

ward, and  had  been  forced  down  into  a 

round,  well-like  hole  only  2.9  ft.  in  diameter 

—  a  hole  2.7  ft.  deep.    Another  of  these 

graves,  containing  traces  only  of  the  skeleton, 

yielded    two    stemmed    arrowpoints     (pi. 

XLVIII,  /),  the  only  specimens  found  in  any 

of  the  circular  graves  on  this  site;  and  it 

was  these  that  first  gave  us  the  hint,  sub- 

stantiated by  later  work,  that  the  circular 

form  represents  another  culture;  for  all  the 

arrowpoints  found  in  the  rectangular  type 

of  grave  had  been  of  the  stemless,  triangular 

variety. 

THE  RECTANGULAR  TYPE 

The  19  rectangular  graves,  the  form  of 

which  was  clearly  traceable  wherever  they 

penetrated  the  subsoil  (pi.  ix),  contained 

the  remains  of  22  individuals,  16  of  whom 

were  adults,  including  one  aged  person  and 

one  adolescent;   of   the  others,   two   were 

infants  and  four  older  children  (pi.  x).     Six 

of  the  adults  were  plainly  women  and  several 

more  may  have  been,  but  the  sex  could  not 

be  determined  with  certainty. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

52 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

POSITION  OF  SKELETONS 

As  to  position,  16  of  the  skeletons  were 

flexed  (pi.  ix),  four  lay  extended  on  the  back 

(pi.  xi),  and  two  had  been  placed  face-down, 

with  the  thighs  extended  in  the  plane  of 

the  body,  but  the  lower  legs  doubled  back 

on  them  until  the  heels  touched  the  hips  — 

a  unique  form  of  burial  in  the  writer's  ex- 

perience up  to  that  time.     This  position 

may  be  seen  in  pi.  xn. 

Of  the  flexed  skeletons,  11  lay  on  the  left 

side,  or  on  the  back  with  the  legs  drawn  up 

to  the  left,  while  the  remaining  five  lay  on 

the  right  side,  or  had  their  limbs  flexed  to 

the  right.    As  to  orientation,  there  seemed 

to  be  a  decided  preference  for  the  northwest, 

13  of  the  skeletons  heading  in  this  general 

direction,  while  only  four  headed  southward, 

three  westward,  and  two  eastward.     Depth 

of  burial  ranged  from  6  in.  to  4  ft.,  the  ma- 

jority lying  from  2.7  to  3.7  ft.  deep. 

INFERENCES 

The  principal  inferences  that  can  be  drawn 

from  these  data  are  two:    That  the  Indians 

of  this  village  (whom  we  later  identified  as 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHILD     BURIAL.     MAINLAND     VILLAGE-SITE.     LENOIR     CITY. 
TENNESSEE 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


EXTENDED    CHEROKEE    BURIAL,     MAINLAND    VILLAGE-SITE, 
LENOIR   CITY,   TENNESSEE 


SKELETONS 

53 

Cherokee)    preferred    the    flexed    position, 

usually  on  the  left  side,  for  their  burials, 

and  that  for  some  reason,  perhaps  because 

it  was  toward  Big  Tennessee  river,  they 

laid  their    dead  with    their   heads  toward 

the  northwest   more    often    than   in  other 

directions. 

MORTUARY  DEPOSITS 

Only  four  of  the  19  rectangular  graves 

were  without  accompanying  objects  of  some 

sort;  the  rest  were  more  or  less  well  provided 

with  mortuary  offerings,  which  usually  took 

the  form  of  beads  or  ornaments,  utensils 

and  implements  being  found  .more  rarely. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,   that 

the  artifacts  found  with  these  burials  are 

probably  but  a  small  part  of  the  original 

offerings,  all  the  objects  of  wood,  basketry, 

skin,     and    feathers    having    disappeared 

through  decay,  together  with  the  matting 

and  woven  fabrics. 

INDIVIDUAL  GRAVES 

The  first  grave  to  show  a  mortuary  de- 

posit of  special  interest  was  no.  8,  which 

contained  the  remains  of  a  child  about  four 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

54 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


years  of  age,  lying  on  its  back,  heading 
northwest,  with  the  legs  flexed  loosely  to 
the  right,  at  a  depth  of  1.7  ft.  About  its 
neck  and  far  down  on  its  breast  lay  what  had 
been  a  necklace  composed  of  106  large, 
round,  shell  beads,  and  46  smaller  ones  of 
cylindrical  form;  back  of  the  head  lay  an- 
other round  bead,  and  about  the  knees  9 
more.  In  addition  to  these,  a  pair  of  un- 
usual, perforated,  spool-shaped  shell  ear- 
plugs (pi.  LXXXII,  c,  d)  lay  at  the  sides  of  the 
head,  and. a  pair  of  long  shell  ear-pins  on 
the  abdomen  (pi.  LXXXII,  e,/).  These,  of 
course,  were  not  implements,  but  ornaments. 
Even  better  provided  with  beads  was  an 
infant  (Burial  10),  which  lay  flexed  to  the 
right,  headed  west;  for  with  it  were  found 
no  fewer  than  551  aboriginal  shell  beads  of 
six  different  types.  Most  of  these,  437  to 
be  exact,  were  small  and  cylindrical,  and 
resembled  wampum  (fig.  50);  these  were 
wrapped  about  the  wrists,  and  with  them 
were  several  disc-beads  and  a  tiny  Mar- 
ginella  shell,  perforated  for  suspension. 
About  the  neck  were  a  string  of  Ollva  shells, 
and  another  composed  of  medium-sized, 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


BURIAL     SHOWING     HEELS     FLEXED     BACK     AGAINST     HIPS. 
MAINLAND   VILLAGE-SITE.    LENOIR  CITY.  TENNESSEE 


UJ    EC 


MORTUARY  DEPOSITS 


55 


round,  shell  beads  combined  with  others 
of  cylindrical  type,  but  considerably  larger 
than  the  wampum  mentioned.  Directly 
under  the  chin  were  found  two  perforated 
bear-teeth  which  seemed  to  have  been  hung 
on  a  separate  thong  or  string  (fig.  56). 

The  first  utensils  found  on  this  site  with 
burials  appeared  with  no.  11,  which  was 
interesting  for  several  reasons.  The  friends 
who  dug  the  grave  had  evidently  intended  at 
first  to  bury  the  remains  in  an  extended 
position,  for  they  had  prepared  a  neat 
rectangular  hole  "six  feet  by  three"  and  4.5 
feet  deep,  but  for  some  reason  had  finally 
decided  to  flex  the  body  and  had  at  last  de- 
posited it  in  this  position,  heading  north- 
west, in  one  end  of  the  long  grave,  as  shown 
in  pi.  xin.  Just  south  of  the  knees  lay  a 
pottery  vessel  shaped  to  represent  a  frog 
(pi.  LIX),  and  a  cracked,  decorated  pot  with 
handles  (pi.  LIII),  while  a  similar  but  larger 
vessel  lay  at  the  feet.  At  the  neck  were 
found  39  large,  round,  shell  bqads. 

The  next  grave  of  special  interest  was 
no.  14,  which  contained  an  adult  flexed 
tightly  on  its  left  side,  heading  northwest 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


56 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


by  north,  at  a  depth  of  nearly  3  ft.  Under 
its  left  upper  arm  lay  a  small  disc  of  stone, 
while  at  the  right  armpit  appeared  a  sim- 
ilar object  made  from  a  pottery  fragment. 
Beneath  the  adult  was  the  skeleton  of  a 
child,  about  eight  or  nine  years  of  age, 
flexed  on  its  right  side,  near  whose  neck 
appeared  ten  perforated  Oliva  shells  which 
had  once  doubtless  constituted  a  necklace. 

A  typically  masculine  mortuary  offering 
was  unearthed  from  Grave  17,  which  con- 
tained the  skeleton  of  a  man  flexed  on  its 
left  side,  with  hands  near  the  face,  heading 
south-southeast,  at  a  depth  of  3.7  ft.;  for  at 
the  back  of  the  head  were  found  five  triangu- 
lar arrowpoints  in  perfect  condition,  another 
broken,  and  still  another  unfinished,  all 
pointing  toward  the  head  of  the  grave;  and 
near  the  middle  of  the  back  the  carapace 
of  a  box-tortoise  (pi.  xrv)  covered  with  a 
large  musselshell  and  containing  a  neatly- 
made  stone  pipe  (pi.  LXXXIV,  a)  and  part 
of  the  lower  jaw  of  a  dog  o*  a  wolf. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  grave  of 
all  was  the  last  one  excavated,  no.  21,  which 
contained  two  adult  skeletons,  both  head- 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


BURIAL  17,    SHOWING   POSITION  OF    TORTOISE-SHELL  PIPE 
CASE,  MAINLAND  VILLAGE-SITE.  LENOIR  CITY,  TENNESSEE 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


DOUBLE   FLEXED   BURIAL,    MAINLAND   VILLAGE-SITE, 
LENOIR  CITY,  TENNESSEE 


BURIAL   21 


57 


ing  northwest.  Below  lay  the  remains  of 
a  man  of  mature  age  flexed  to  the  left,  the 
legs  tightly  folded,  but  placed  at  right 
angles  to  the  spine,  the  left  hand  at  the  side, 
the  right  resting  on  the  abdomen;  while 
above  him  were  placed  the  remains  of  a 
woman  flexed  to  the  right,  with  the  hands 
near  the  face.  There  was  considerable 
space  in  the  bottom  of  the  grave  at  the 
man's  left— so  much  that  it  seems  strange 
that  she  should  have  been  buried  above 
instead  of  beside  him,  unless  she  did  not 
die  as  soon  as  expected,  and  the  grave  had 
to  be  filled  and  re-opened  for  her  later.  In 
the  filling  of  the  grave  above  the  skeletons 
was  found  the  bone  fleshing  tool  or  spatula 
seen  in  pi.  LXXI,  a,  while  at  the  man's  feet, 
pointing  toward  the  foot  of  the  grave,  were 
five  triangular  arrowpoints,  all  perfect  but 
one,  and  at  his  right  hip,  but  pointing 
toward  the  head,  five  more  of  even  finer 
workmanship.  Beneath  his  head,  as  seen 
in  fig.  5,  had  been  placed  a  fine  ten-inch 
flint  knife,  shown  in  pi.  LXXII,  pointing  south- 
west, and  near  the  right  elbow  a  long  object 
of  antler,  its  extremities  badly  rotted,  but 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


58 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


still  showing  two  perforations  near  one  end. 
The  woman  had  nothing  but  a  few  pearl  and 


FIG.  5. — Position  of  flint  knife  beneath  skull,  Burial  21 
Mainland  village-site,  Lenoir  City. 


shell  beads  near  the  skull.  That  her  con- 
sort may  have  met  a  violent  death  is  sug- 
gested by  the  finding,  with  its  point  against 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


DOUBLE   EXTENDED    BURIAL,    MAINLAND  VILLAGE-SITE. 
LENOIR  CITY,  TENNESSEE 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


BURIAL    FACE-DOWN    WITH    HEELS    FLEXED    BACK    TO   HIPS. 
MAINLAND   VILLAGE-SITE.   LENOIR   CITY.   TENNESSEE 


DOG    BURIALS 

59 

the  spine,  of  one  arrowpoint  which  had 

pierced  his  abdomen,  and  another  among 

the  bones  of  the  throat.     PI.  xv  shows  the 

appearance  of  this  burial  when  laid  bare. 

Interesting   because   of   the  position   of 

the  two  skeletons  it  contained  was  Burial  4, 

illustrated  in  pi.  xvi.    As  may  be  seen,  they 

lay  extended  in  close  contact,  heading  east, 

at  a  depth  of  2.8  ft.,  but  the  only  accompany- 

ing relic  was  a  perfect  bone  awl  which  stood 

point-upward  beside  the  skull,  to  the  left 

in  the  picture.     The  finding  of  skeletons 

face-down  with  feet  bent  back  to  the  hips, 

has  been  mentioned,  and  is  illustrated  in 

pi.  xvn,  representing  Burial  7,  in  which  the 

celt  protruding  from  beneath  the  left  leg 

should  be  noted.     Other  burials  were  often 

accompanied  with   aboriginal  shell  beads, 

and  occasionally  with   arrowpoints,   bone 

awls,  and  other  ordinary  objects. 

DOG  BURIALS 

Three    dog    burials    were    encountered, 

scattered  among  the  graves  of  their  masters, 

but  only  one  was  in  sufficiently  good  condi- 

tion to  determine  the  position.    This  lay 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

60 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

curled  up  as  if  asleep,  at  a  depth  of  a  little 

more  than  a  foot. 

PITS 

The  so-called  ash-pit,  a  familiar  feature  of 

ancient  village-sites  in  some  parts  of  the 

country,  was  not  commonly  met  during 

our  work  in  Tennessee;   but  two  pits  ap- 

peared on  this  site.    One  of  these  was  a  cup- 

shaped  hole,  its  outlines  easily  traced,  about 

5£  ft.  in  diameter  and  3  ft.  deep,  filled  with 

a  homogeneous  mass  of  black  earth  contain- 

ing many  animal  bones  and  potsherds,  and  a 

few  arrowpoints.    No.  2,  of  similar  form, 

measured  only  3.7  ft.  in  diameter,  with  a 

depth  of  2.5  ft.,  and,  unlike  the  first,  was 

filled  with  irregular  layers  of  ashes  which 

yielded  many  potsherds  of  varying  types, 

including  some  fragments  of   the  unique 

painted  ware  first  found  by  Mr  Moore  near 

Chattanooga  (fig.  30). 

CONCLUSIONS 

It  was  evident  that  all  the  burials  found 

on  this  site,  except  the  old  round  graves 

mentioned  above,  and  most  of  the  specimens 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CULTURE    SEQUENCE 


61 


unearthed,  should  be  attributed  to  one 
people,  whom  we  finally  identified  as  the 
Cherokee  found  in  possession  of  this  dis- 
trict by  the  whites;  while  from  the  circular 
graves  we  inferred  that  before  the  founding 
of  the  Cherokee  village  another  people  had 
used  this  point  of  land  for  burial,  a  people 
who  occasionally  at  least  used  stemmed 
arrowpoints.  Later  work,  especially  that 
on  the  nearby  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island, 
shed  further  light  on  the  culture  of  the 
"Round  Grave  people,"  and  furnished  clues 
which  point  toward  Algonkian  influence,  if 
not  relationship.  As  to  the  period  of  use, 
we  should  have  assumed  the  site  to  have 
been  entirely  pre-colonial,  if  we  had  not 
found  with  one  skeleton  a  small  jingler 
which  seems  to  be  made  of  sheet-copper  of 
European  origin,  and  brings  the  date  of 
this  burial  at  least  up  to  the  time  of  contact 
with  white  people.  From  the  fact,  however, 
that  this  was  the  only  article  not  strictly 
native  in  character  whic'i  we  found,  it  may 
be  inferred  that,  while  the  site  must  have 
been  occupied  either  permanently  or  from 
time  to  time  for  many  years  before  the 


62 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

coming  of  the  whites,  to  accumulate  so  much 

refuse,  it  was  finally  abandoned  soon  after 

their  arrival. 

Stopping  work  on  this  site  at  the  owner's 

request,  as  before  related,  we  finished  the 

mound   excavation   which   had   been   sus- 

pended, and  then  proceeded  to  Bussell's 

island,   formerly   known  as  Lenoir  island  , 

which  lies  directly  in  the  mouth  of  Little 

Tennessee  river,  part  of  whose  waters  run 

to  the  east  and  part  to  the  west  of  it.    To 

do  this,  we  had  merely  to  pull  our  houseboat 

across  the  narrow  eastern  channel  to  the 

island,  along  which  we  coasted  until  we 

found  a  suitable  place  to  tie  her  up  again  — 

certainly  an  easy  and  convenient  way  to 

move  camp.    The  lower  end  of  the  island, 

as  seen  from  down-stream,  is  shown  in  pi. 

XVIII. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

63 

IV.  LEXOIR  OR  BUSSELL'S  ISLAND 
FORMER  EXPLORATION 

THE    expedition   of   the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,    under   Mr  Emmert, 

l22£S!f     wno    conducted   its   work   about 

Lenoir  City,  gained  its  best  re- 
sults from  two  mounds  which  in  Emmert's 
time   (1887)   stood  on  Lenoir   (at  present 
called  Bussell's)   island.    Both  have  now 
disappeared,  hence  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  first  was  "very  symmetrical,  the 
base  almost  an  exact  circle  IdO  feet  in  di- 
ameter and  6£  ft.  high,"  an'd  that  it  con- 
tained 14  skeletons,  all  of  them  in  an  ex- 
tended position,  according  to  the  published 
plan,  but  that  few  aboriginal  objects  were 
found  with  them  —  merely  some  sheets  cf 
mica  and  a  stone  knife.    One  adult  skeleton, 
heading  in  a  direction  different  from  the 
rest,  had  blue-glass  beads  about  its  neck, 
while  a  child,  lying  apart  from  the  others. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

64 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


was  provided  with  not  only  glass  beads 
but  iron  bracelets.  The  present  writer 
thinks  that  both  these  may  have  been  in- 
terred at  a  date  considerably  later  than  that 
of  the  rest  of  the  burials. 

The  second  mound,  a  tumulus  108  ft.  in 
diameter  and  11  ft.  high,  contained  no  fewer 
than  67  skeletons,  of  which  all  but  two  lay 
extended  on  the  back.  That  only  two  of 
the  entire  number  were  flexed  seems  extra- 
ordinary in  view  of  the  fact  that  we  found 
this  to  be  the  favorite  position,  and  ex- 
tended burial  quite  the  exception,  in  all 
of  our  work  near  Lenoir  City. 

The  present  writer  must  disagree  with 
Thomas's  report  on  what  he  terms  the 
"terrace,"  or"  "annex,"  to  this  mound,  which 
he  regards  as  intentionally  artificial.10  Such 
a  terrace  still  exists,  it  is  true,  but  our  in- 
vestigations show  it  to  be  a  great  midden  of 
village  refuse,  of  gradual  accumulation, 
and  not  artificial  in  the  sense  of  being  a 
mound  constructed  for  a  definite  purpose. 
Mr  Emmert  was  driven  away  from  this  de- 
posit by  high  water  before  he  had  succeeded 
in  doing  much  work,  but  he  says  of  it: 


INDIAN    NOTES 


BUSSELL'S    ISLAND 

65 

"In  a  single  trench,  24  ft.  long  and  10  ft. 

wide,  cut  lengthwise  in  the  center  to  the  original 

surface,  9  skeletons  were  discovered.     The  first 

was  that  of  a  child  at  a  depth  of  18  inches; 

the  bones  were  badly  decayed  and  unaccom- 

panied by  relics  of  any  kind.     The  other  8,  all 

adults,  were  found  at  a  depth  of  7  feet,  close 

to  the  bottom,  and  in  a  much  better  state  of 

preservation  than  that  of  the  child.    With  them 

were  three  whole  pots  and  a  few  broken  beads." 

SCOPE  OF  OUR  WORK 

Our  excavations  on  Bussell's  island  were 

three  in  number,  the  first,  as  our  map  (pi. 

vi)  shows,  made  near  the  top  of  the  slope 

of  the  great  midden  near  its  northern  edge, 

some  200  ft.  from  its  extreme  point;  the 

second,  about  130  ft.  to  the  south,  running 

from  the  low  ground  east  of  the  midden  up 

its  slope  westward  to  the  site  of  the  mound 

excavated  by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology;  the 

third,  about  400  ft.  south-southeast  of  the 

last,  on  a  low  ridge  parallel  with  the  east 

mouth   of  Little  Tennessee  river.    These 

operations  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  41 

burials,  representing  two  distinct  types  of 

interment,  and  in    securing    a    very    fair 

collection. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

66 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


THE  GREAT  MIDDEN 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  site 
on  this  island  was  the  great  midden, — the 
formation  that  Mr  Emmert  considered 
an  artificial  terrace, — one  of  the  largest  deep 
Indian  refuse  deposits  ever  seen  by  the 
writer.  Thomas's  report  gives  the  "height" 
as  8  ft.,  but  the  deepest  places  found  by  our 
party  did  not  measure  more  than  6^  ft., 
not  counting  graves  and  pits,  and  the  aver- 
age was  less — 4£  to  5  ft.  But  when  one 
realizes  that  the  deposit  covered  an  area 
approximately  400  ft.  long  by  200  ft.  wide 
(Thomas  has  it  570  by  380),  its  magnitude 
can  be  appreciated,  and  also  the  large  popu- 
lation and  the  length  of  time  required  to 
produce  it;  for  it  is  made  of  solid  blackened 
earth,  musselshells,  and  refuse,  without  a 
trace  of  the  intermixture  of  raw  soil  such 
as  one  expects  to  see  in  a  mound  purposely 
erected,  except  at  the  point  near  its  south- 
eastern end  where  a  real  mound  had  been 
dug  down  by  the  Bureau  expedition,  as 
before  related.  As  our  digging  proceeded, 
ash-layers  of  varying  sizes  and  hearths 


INDIAN    NOTES 


GREAT   MIDDEN 


67 


came  to  light  at  various  levels,  but  no  layers 
running  continuously  for  any  great  distance; 
the  deposit  had  been  of  gradual  growth. 
And  it  was  noticed  that  near  the  bottom  the 
artifacts  were  of  a  character  different  from 
those  found  higher  up:  rather  coarse  pottery 
of  a  single  type,  a  variety  of  arrowpoints, 
mostly  of  stemmed  forms,  and  many  frag- 
ments of  steatite  vessels,  all  of  which  offered 
a  decided  contrast  to  the  varied  and  often 
ornate  pottery,  the  arrowpoints  of  one  type 
only  (the  triangular),  and  the  absence  of 
steatite  sherds,  noted  above.  These  two 
distinct  groups  of  objects  seemed  to  point 
to  the  presence  of  two  cultures,  but  un- 
fortunately there  were  no  distinct  layers 
dividing  one  from  the  other;  in  some  places 
the  older  group  of  objects  might  be  found 
anywhere  from  the  middle  of  the  deposit 
downward;  in  other  areas  only  within  a 
few  inches  of  its  bottom.  Evidently  the 
surface  configuration  of  the  midden  left 
by  the  earlier  people  does  not  correspond 
with  that  of  the  present  one,^laid  down  on 
it  by  the  Cherokee. 

The  ancient  village  here  must  have  been 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


68 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

analogous    to    a   modern    railway-junction 

town,  which  is  often  more  populous  than 

its  neighbors  because  of  its  advantageous 

position  at  the  intersection  of  two  lines  of 

travel,  insuring  it  more  traffic;  but  in  this 

instance  the  lines  were  not  railroads  but 

rivers  —  the  Big  and  the  Little  Tennessee, 

both  navigable  for  many  miles  by  the  In- 

dian's  most   efficient   freight   carrier,    the 

canoe.    And  it  is  probably  to  this,  rather 

than  to  any  other  feature,  that  we  may  as- 

cribe the  selection  of  this  island/   by  at 

least  two  peoples  successively,  as  the  site 

of  an  important  village,  and  the  final  accu- 

mulation of  the  extraordinary  Great  Midden. 

TYPES  OF  INTERMENTS 

As  at  the  Mainland  village-site  before 

described,  the  graves  found  here  are  divi- 

sible into  two  distinct  classes;  one  of  them 

the  ancient  round  form,  of  which  there  were 

9  examples,  the  other  the  ordinary  type  of 

grave,  here  attributed  to  the  Cherokee,  the 

outline  of  which,  when  traceable,  was  usually 

rectangular.    Of  these  there  were  32. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


"ROUND    GRAVE"    BURIAL,    LENOIR    OR    BUSSELL'S     ISLAND. 
LENOIR  CITY,  TENNESSEE 


TYPES    OF    GRAVES 


69 


THE  ROUND  GRAVES 

The  "round  graves,"  as  the  name  im- 
plies, were  almost  circular  in  outline  (one 
of  them  was  slightly  oval),  and  were  very 
small,  usually  only  2  to  3  ft.  in  diameter. 
This  necessitated  folding  the  corpse  as 
compactly  as  possible  by  flexing  the  legs 
tightly  against  the  chest,  often  breaking 
several  bones  in  the  process,  and  forcing 
the  head  forward  and  downward  between 
the  knees.  The  bodies  were  crowded  into 
the  grave  so  as  to  lie  on  the  side,  as  a  rule 
(pi.  xrx,  b;  xx);  but  in  two  instances  they 
lay  on  the  back  (pi.  xix,  a).  Fortunately 
the  skeletons,  although  far  gone  in  decay 
and  so  brittle  that  but  few  of  them  could 
be  preserved,  were  in  better  condition  than 
those  found  on  the  Mainland  village-site, 
and  for  this  reason  we  were  enabled  to  take 
the  photographs  here  reproduced  to  illus- 
trate this  unusual  form  of  interment.- 

All  the  round  graves  were  found  in  the 
otherwise  undisturbed  subsoil  beneath  the 
Great  Midden,  giving  them  a  present  depth 
of  from  4.2  to  8.9  ft.,  but  probably  when 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


70 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


dug  none  of  them  was  more  than  4  ft. 
deep,  and  most  of  them  were  considerably 
less.  Certain  it  is  that  they  can  be  traced 
but  a  short  way  up  into  the  midden,  as 
shown  in  fig.  6,  a,  b,  and  equally  certain  it 
is  that  the  earth  filling  them  never  contains 


FIG.  6. — Diagrammatic  section  of  Great  Midden,  Lenior 
or  Bussell's  island,  Lenoir  City,  showing  levels  of  origin  of 
the  two  types  of  graves.  A,  earlier  round  grave;  u,  later 
round  grave;  c,  prehistoric  rectangular  grave;  D,  historic 
rectangular  grave. 


anything  in  the  way  of  pottery  except  the 
simple  ware  characteristic,  as  before  noted, 
of  the  lowest  levels  of  the  Great  Midden,  and 
the  equally  characteristic  fragments  of 
steatite  vessels;  and  that  the  few  arrow- 
points  found  are  usually  of  the  stemmed 


INDIAN    NOTES 


ROUND    GRAVES 


71 


variety.  That  they  are  older  than  the 
rectangular  (here  Cherokee)  type  of  grave 
can  not  be  questioned. 

The  "Round  Grave  people"  seem  to  have 
preferred  to  orient  their  burials  in  a  westerly 
direction,  six  out  of  the  nine  heading  west, 
northwest,  or  southwest,  and  the  remaining 
three  heading  east.  Four  of  the  nine  lay 
on  the  right  side,  two  on  the  left,  and  two 
on  the  back;  while  the  position  of  one  could 
not  be  determined. 

MORTUARY  DEPOSITS. — Mortuary  de- 
posits were  few  and  sparse  in  the  round 
graves,  but  Burial  6  had  a  small  bone  awl 
on  the  right  shoulder;  Burial  23  a  stemmed 
arrowpoint  on  the  left  upper  arm;  Burial 
29,  the  only  child's  skeleton  found,  had  14 
perforated  animal  teeth,  mostly  of  the  lynx, 
about  its  skull  and  along  its  right  arm  (fig. 
24);  while  Burial  39  had  a  curved  tablet 
of  bone  or  of  antler  with  two  perfora- 
tions (fig.  23),  perhaps  a  "bracer,"  near  the 
right  arm. 

The  deepest  of  these  graves  (no.  22),  which 
measured  8.9  ft.  from  the  present  surface  and 
contained  traces  only  of  bone,  was  interest- 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


72 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

ing  in  an  unusual  way,  for  its  slightly  plastic 

clayey  walls  still  retained  imprints  of  the 

hands  and  the  naked  limbs  and  bodies  of 

its  diggers,   clearly  seen  when   the  looser 

filling   was    removed    with    care.    It    was 

traceable  about  two  feet  up  into  the  de- 

posit,   showing   that   the   midden   of   the 

"Round  Grave  people"  must  have  had  a 

depth  of  two  feet  at  this  point  at  the  time 

the  interment  was  made. 

THE  RECTANGULAR  GRAVES 

A  tabulation  made  of  the  32  rectangular 

or  Cherokee  graves  discloses  the  following 

facts:   that  all  of   them   contained   single 

skeletons  except  one,  which  yielded  three; 

that  of  these  34  individuals,  23  were  children 

under  ten  years  of  age  and  eight  of  these 

infants;  that  four  of  the  remaining  11  adults 

were   plainly   women,    and    several   others 

may  have  been;  that  evidently  we  had  not 

found  the  place  or  places  where  most  of  the 

adults  were  buried;  perhaps  the  mounds  ex- 

plored by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  had 

contained  most  of  these.    For  this  reason 

it  seems  extraordinary  that  all  but  2  of  the  81 

INDIAN    NOTES 

RECTANGULAR    GRAVES 


73 


skeletons  which  Emmert  found  in  these 
mounds  are  recorded  as  having  lain  in  an 
extended  position,  whereas  of  our  34,  ap- 
parently representing  the  same  people  and 
period,  and  found  in  the  immediate  vicinity, 
every  one  was  flexed  except  2  whose  posi- 
tion, due  to  decay  or  to  previous  disturb- 
ance, could  not  be  determined.  Hence, 
even  these  may  have  been  flexed. 

As  at  the  Mainland  village-site,  the  ma- 
jority of  the  skeletons,  19  to  be  exact,  lay 
on  the  left  side;  but  here  the  west,  with  12 
individuals,  seemed  to  have  been  the  fa- 
vorite direction  for  orientation,  and  20  (in- 
cluding these)  headed  in  the  directions 
embraced  in  the  quadrant  from  west  to 
south.  Their  positions  may  be  seen  in  the 
plans  of  the  three  trenches  (pi.  xxi,  and 
figs.  7  and  8). 

MORTUARY  DEPOSITS. — Fourteen  of  these 
skeletons  were  accompanied  with  objects 
of  one  kind  or  another,  but  these  offerings 
displayed  neither  the  quantity  nor  the 
variety  seen  at  the  Mainland  village-site. 
A  few  graves,  however,  deserve  special  men- 
tion, of  which  no.  34,  found  in  Trench  3  on 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


74 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

a  knoll  some  distance  from  the  Great  Midden, 

is  perhaps  the  most  interesting.    This  con- 

TRENCH  1 

N 

(   Pit    ) 

FIG.  7.  —  Burials  in  Trench  l.Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island, 
Lenoir  City. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

RECTANGULAR    GRAVES 


tained,  at  the  depth  of  5  ft.,  the  badly  de- 
cayed bones  of  a  half-grown  child  flexed 
on  the  left  side,  heading  southwest,  above 


FIG.  8. — Burials  in  Trench  3,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island, 
Lenoir  City. 


which,  perhaps  10  in.  above  the  bones,  were 
the  traces  of  a  series  of  cedar  sticks,  laid 
crosswise  of  the  grave,  some  six  inches 
apart.  In  the  northern  corner  of  the  grave 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


76 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


stood  a  neatly-made  red  earthenware 
water  bottle  (pi.  LVHI),  a  vessel  of  unusual 
form  (pi.  LVI),  and  a  small  cooking-pot  of 
ordinary  type,  with  handles.  Cut  into 
the  foot  of  this  grave  was  another,  no.  35, 
only  3.2  ft.  deep  and  containing  the  remains 
of  an  infant,  together  with  a  rude  effigy 
bowl  representing  a  bird  (pi.  LX,  a). 

Another  good  find  of  pottery  was  made 
with  Burial  20,  that  of  a  woman  flexed  to  the 
right  and  headed  west,  at  a  depth  of  4  ft.; 
for  near  her  hips,  as  seen  in  pi.  xxn,  stood 
a  pottery  vessel  of  a  style  resembling  one 
of  the  western  Iroquoian  types  (pi.  LIV)  ,  con- 
taining a  small  pot  with  handles;  and  in- 
side this  again  a  tiny  vessel,  provided  with 
holes  for  suspension  (fig.  32).  Although 
this  woman  was  probably  a  Cherokee,  like 
the  rest,  her  grave,  instead  of  being  neatly 
rectangular,  was  somewhat  pear-shaped. 
Other  graves  of  the  older  Cherokee  group 
contained  an  occasional  vessel,  or  a  few 
shell  beads,  and  the  like;  and  one,  a  child's, 
had  a  large  pottery  disc  (fig.  34)  resting  on 
its  head;  and  still  another,  also  a  child's,  a 


INDIAN    NOTES 


LU 

>-  z 

IT  Z 

LU  LJ 

h-  h- 

O  >-" 

Q.  H 


EC  Q 
I  Z 
I-  < 


HARRINGTON  — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


FRAGMENTS    OF    LARGE    POTTERY   VESSEL    IN    SITU     LENOIR 
OR   BUSSELL'S    ISLAND.    LENOIR  CITY.   TENNESSEE 


HISTORIC    GRAVES 

77 

K>ttery  disc,  a  stone  disc  with  a  cross  marked 

on  it  (fig.  63,  a),  and  a  tiny  pot. 

BURIALS  OF  THE  HISTORIC  PERIOD 

The  preceding  graves  all  appeared  to  be 

prehistoric:  at  least,  nothing  was  found  in 

them  to  indicate  contact  with  Europeans, 

while  some  must  be  very  old,  judging  from 

their  low   level  of   origin   in    the  midden 

(fig.  6,  c).    Nevertheless,   we   found  five, 

all  those  of  infants  or  of  young  children, 

that  undoubtedly  belonged  to  the  historic 

period,  for  not  only  were   their  bones  in  a 

better  state  of   preservation   than  most  of 

the  others,  and  their  graves  traceable  to  the 

present  surface  (fig.  6,  d),  but   they  were 

amply  provided  with  glass  beads  made  by 

the  whites,  and  in  two  cases  with  beads  and 

conical  jinglers  or  ornaments   made   from 

sheet-copper  or  brass,  perhaps  from  pieces  of 

kettles  (fig.  54).     One  of  the  latter  had  also 

an  aboriginal  circular  gorget  of  shell  (pi. 

Lxxxn,  b),  the  other  some  bracelets  of  iron, 

some  red  paint,  and  a  pearl  bead. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection 

that  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  explorer  also 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

78 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

found  in  his  mounds  on  this  island  several 

skeletons  accompanied  with  glass  beads  and 

iron  bracelets.    Evidently  the  site  was  oc- 

cupied up  to  and  into  the  historic  /period. 

DOG  BURIAL 

One  dog  burial,  and  one  only,  came  to 

light  here,  lying  at  a  depth  of  4.3  ft.  in 

Trench  2,  on  the  left  side,  head  toward  the 

north.    It  must  have  belonged  to  the  Chero- 

kee period-  of  occupancy,  for  the  grave  had 

been  dug  from  a  level  well  up  toward  the 

top  of  the  Great  Midden. 

PITS 

Two  pits  were  noted  during  our  excava- 

tions on  the  island,  one  apparently  belong- 

ing to  the  "Round  Grave  people,"  the  other 

to  the  Cherokee.    The  first,  as  may  be  seen 

in  the  plan  of  Trench  1  (fig.  7),  lay  to  the 

south  of  the  group  of  burials,  and  extended 

to  a  depth  of  5.  ft.  8  in.  below  the  present 

surface,  penetrating  the  subsoil  fully  20  in., 

with  a  diameter  of  about  4  ft.    It  could  not 

be  traced  far  up  into  the  midden,  however, 

INDIAN    NOTES 

PITS 

and  this,  with  the  fact  that  it  yielded  only 
the  simple  pottery  and  stemmed  arrow- 
points  characteristic  of  the  lower  levels,  led 
us  to  attribute  it  to  the  earlier  people.  It 
also  contained  numerous  split  deer-bones, 
and,  most  interesting  of  all,  part  of  an  es- 
pecially fine  gorget  of  slate  (fig.  21).  This 
was  much  finer  in  workmanship  than  any- 
thing of  the  kind  we  saw  or  found  from  the 
Cherokee,  which  led  to  the  reflection  that,  if 
this  was  indeed  what  it  appeared,  a  pit  of 
the  "Round  Grave  people,"  these  latter, 
in  spite  of  their  simple  pottery,  must  have 
been  capable  of  superior  work  in  stone. 
There  was  no  doubt,  however,  about  the 
classification  of  the  second  pit  found  on  low 
ground  to  the  east  of  the  Great  Midden  hear 
the  beginning  of  Trench  2,  for  it  took  its 
origin  from  the  surface  and  contained  a 
number  of  typical  Cherokee  potsherds  in 
addition  to  its  chief  contents — the  greater 
part  of  a  very  large  pot  (pi.  L),  lying  crushed 
on  its  bottom  (pi.  xxm),  at  a  depth  of  2.8  ft. 
On  the  sherds  lay  a  stone  weighing  perhaps 
20  Ibs. 


79 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


80 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

GENERAL  DIGGING 

From  our  general  digging,  particularly  in 

the  upper  levels  of  the  Great  Midden,  we 

gathered  a  very  fair  collection  of  pottery 

fragments  of  many  styles,  and  implements 

of  stone  and  bone,  similar  in  most  respects 

to  our  collection  from  the  Mainland  village- 

site.    With  the  exception  of  the  compara- 

tively few  articles  found  on  the  lower  levels, 

and  a  few  painted  potsherds  representing 

the  "Second  Culture,"  to  be  discussed  later, 

the  relationship  of  whic'i  to  the  Cherokee 

is  doubtful,  these  specimens,  in  the  writer's 

opinion,  may  be  attributed  to  the  Cherokee. 

If  there  were  other  relics  of  the  "Second 

Culture"   besides   the   polychrome   sherds, 

they  could  not  be  distinguished  from  those 

of  the  Cherokee. 

CONCLUSIONS 

To  summarize  our  conclusions,  we  find 

evidence  that  two  aboriginal  peoples  (and 

perhaps   three)    have   occupied   Lenoir   or 

BusselPs  island;   that  the  earliest   (whose 

traces  were  noted)  cramped  and  squeezed 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CULTURE    SEQUENCE 


81 


their  dead  into  the  round  graves  of  small 
diameter,  employed  pottery  of  a  rather 
coarse  and  simple  type  and  also  vessels  of 
soapstone,  used  arrowpoints  of  the  stemmed 
types  largely,  if  not  exclusively,  made  some 
bone  implements  such  as  awls  and  bracers, 
and  perforated  animal  teeth  for  use  as 
ornaments.  This  is  practically  all  we  know 
about  them,  unless  we  admit  the  evidence 
of  the  fine  gorget  fragment  that  they  were 
capable  of  unusually  good  work  in  rubbed 
stone,  and  add  that  they  left  a  midden  on 
the  island,  in  some  places  at  least  two  feet 
in  depth. 

A  few  painted  sherds  may  suggest  another 
culture  following  the  first,  before  the  arrival 
of  the  latest  people,  whom  we  judge  to  have 
been  the  Cherokee  (the  evidence  will  be 
produced  later).  In  contrast  with  the  cus- 
toms of  the  "Round  Grave  people,"  the 
Cherokee  buried  their  dead,  as  a  rule, 
rather  loosely  flexed,  lying  on  the  side,  in 
rectangular  graves;  employed,  especially 
in  later  years,  a  great  variety  of  pottery 
forms,  coarse  and  fine,  but  no  steatite  pots 
at  all;  used  arrowpoints  of  the  triangular 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


82 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


form  exclusively,  made  a  variety  of  bone 
implements  which  fall  into  very  definite 
types;  and,  although  far  from  the  sea,  were 
especially  fond  of  using  beads  and  other 
ornaments  made  from  ocean  shells.  This, 
of  course,  implies  considerable  intertribal 
trade.  They  occupied  the  island  well  into 
historic  times,  until  they  could  obtain  glass 
beads,  sheet-brass  or  copper,  and  iron,  and 
when  they  departed  left  not  only  two 
mounds  but  an  enormous  midden  which 
to  this  day  measures  4  to  6  ft.  in  depth,  400 
ft.  long,  and  about  200  ft.  wide.  The  lower 
part  of  this  midden,  however,  as  before  indi- 
cated, was  already  in  existence  when  they 
arrived. 

We  left  Lenoir  or  BusselFs  island  with 
regret,  for  we  knew  that  all  the  work  done 
by  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  in  addition 
to  our  own,  was  but  a  scratching  of  the 
surface,  and  that  we  were  abandoning  a 
treasure  of  specimens  and  information. 
But  the  season  was  far  advanced  and  we  had 
other  sites  to  visit;  consequently,  on  a  rainy 
morning  in  October,  we  loosed  our  moorings 
and  floated  down  the  river. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


83 

V.  MOUNDS  NEAR  RHEA  SPRINGS 

REALIZING    the    lateness    of    the 
season,    we    selected,    from    the 

J*i«j^J     almost    innumerable    sites    along 

the  river,   two  of  the  most  im- 
portant recommended  by  Mr  Moore,  and 
resolutely  closed  our  eyes  to  all  the  rest. 
These  two  were:  the  Upper  Hampton  place, 
near  Rhea  Springs  in  Rhea  county,  almost 
directly  across  the  river  from  Euchee;  and 
Hiwassee  island,  in  Meigs  county,  at  the 
mouth   of   Hiwassee  river  below  Dayton, 
Tenn.     Circumstances   made   it   advisable 
to  explore  the  latter  first,  but  as  the  Upper 
Hampton  place  comes  next  geographically 
to  the  sites  we  have  been  considering,  we 
shall  give  it  priority  here. 
This   property    is   the   easternmost   of  a 
number  of  farms,  at  different  points  along 
the  Tennessee,  that  had  been  owned  by  the 
late  Walter  Hampton  of  Chattanooga,  but 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

84 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

at  the  time  of  our  visit  the  lessee,  Mr 

Charles    G.    Butler,    was   in   charge.    He 

kindly  granted  us  permission  to  open  such 

mounds  as  we  desired.    To  this  gentleman 

and  to  Mr  J.  R.  Wilson,  owner  of  a  nearby 

plantation,  who  entertained  us  most  hos- 

pitably at  his  home  during  our  entire  stay, 

the  writer  takes  occasion  to   express  his 

grateful  appreciation. 

THE  MOUND  GROUP 

The   Upper  Hampton  place    group,   so 

named  by  Mr  Moore,11  who  explored  one  of 

the  tumuli,  consists  of  five  mounds  whose 

comparative  size  and  respective  situations 

may  be  seen  in  the  appended  map  (fig.  9), 

standing  on  the  edge  of  the  bluffs  overlook- 

ing the  wide  bottoms  of  Tennessee  river 

which  here  makes  a  great  bend,  and  in 

plain  sight  of  the  stream  itself  (pi.  xxrv). 

They  form  one  end  of  a  series  comprising 

about   twenty   distinct   mounds   found   in 

groups  (pi.  xxv)  anti  singly  from  this  point 

for  the  distance  of  a  mile  or  more  down- 

stream,   along  the  bluffs  which  cross  the 

adjoining  Lower  Hampton  place. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

ID    LLl 

O  H 

OC     . 

O  W 

O 


CC 


UPPER   HAMPTON 


85 


Although  at  the  very  edge  of  an  open 
field,  these  mounds  have  never  been  under 
cultivation,  but  are  still  covered  with  heavy 
timber,  as  shown  in  pi.  xxvi,  an  especially 
large  oak  standing  directly  on  no.  2,  the 


FIG.  9. — Mound  group,  Upper  Hampton  place,  near 
Rhea  Springs. 


tumulus  we  chose  for  exploration.  We 
naturally  thought  that  the  earth  used  for 
building  these  structures  must  have  come 
from  the  pond-hole  shown  in  the  map,  but 
were  informed  by  the  neighbors  that  this 
had  been  a  clay-pit  from  which  material 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


86 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

for  brick-making  had  been  dug  within  re- 

cent years.     In  spite  of  this,  it  is  possible 

that  the  hole  was  started  by  the  Indians. 

PREVIOUS  EXPLORATION 

None  of  the  mounds  of  the  Upper  Hamp- 

ton group  showed  traces  of  extensive  pre- 

vious digging,  except  no.  1,  which  was  in- 

vestigated by    Mr  Moore,  and  is  reported 

on  by  him  in  his  Aboriginal  Sites  on  Ten- 

nessee River.12    The  measurements  of  this 

he  gives  as:  diameter  of  base,  50  ft.;  height, 

6  ft.  4  in.;  and  writes  of  it: 

"Selecting  the  smallest  mound  for  investi- 
gation, a  hole  about  1  1  ft.  square  reached  the 
base  line  at  a  depth  of  4  feet  4  inches,  showing 
that  the  mound  had  been  increased  in  height, 
presumably  by  the  washing  away  of  adjacent 
ground,  which  could  easily  be  the  case,  the 
mound  being  on  a  slope. 
"Not  far  from  the  center  of  the  excavation, 

on.  the  dark  material  marking  the  original  sur- 
face of  the  ground,  were  remains  of  a  skull,  no 
other  bones  being  present.     With  the  skull  was 
part  of  the  columella  of  a  conch-shell. 
"At  one  corner  of  the  excavation  were  the 

remnants,  here  and  there,  of  bones,  which  from 

their  position,  indicated  that  they  had  formed 
part  of  a  skeleton  lying  at  full  length.     Near  the 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND    2 

87 

skull  were  two  parts  of  the  columella  of  a  conch; 
two  similar  ones  had  been  placed  near  where 
the  left  shoulder  had  been." 

Momsro  2 

We  selected  for  investigation   the  next 

mound  to  this  (pi.  xxvn),  which,  as  stated 

above,  was  Mound  2,  recorded  by  Moore  as 

being  55  ft.  in  diameter  and  10  ft.  2  in.  high. 

It  was  made  of  reddish  and  yellowish  up- 

land surface  soil,  with  a  little  mixture,  now 

and    then,    of    the   bright-red   clay   which 

forms    the    subsoil    here,    occasional    de- 

composed musselshells,  scattered  flint  chips, 

bits  of  charcoal,   and  a  few  arrowpoints, 

strangely    enough    of    the   stemmed    type. 

CIRCULAR    STONE    GRAVES.  —  Six  burials 

only  were  found  in  this  mound,  arranged 

as  shown  in  fig.  10,  but  two  of  these  were  of 

a    decidedly    unusual    character,    different 

from  anything  found  by  us  in  the  region. 

They  were  circular  stone  graves  of  dimin- 

utive size,  situated  just  beneath  the  sur- 

face, one  of  them,  Burial  2   (pi.  XXVHI), 

composed  of  twelve  small  limestone  slabs 

about  12  or  14  in.  long  and  8  in.  wide,  set 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


up  on  edge  and  overlapping  in  such  a  way 
as  to  form  an  almost  circular  cist  1.4  ft.  in 
diameter,  with  no  evidence  of  a  cover,  but 
furnished  with  a  bottom  made  of  two  sim- 


FIG.  10. — Plan  of  Mound  2,  Upper  Hampton  place,  near 
Rhea  Springs. 


ilar  slabs.  This  contained  parts  of  the  skull 
and  other  bones  of  a  young  adult,  in  very 
bad  condition  from  decay,  and  without 
accompaniments — obviously  a  "bone  bur- 
ial," a  disjointed  skeleton  brought  here  for 


INDIAN    NOTES 


. 


MOUND    2 


89 


interment  after  the  flesh,  had  disappeared. 
The  skull  had  been  placed  at  the  eastern 
side  of  the  cist.  Burial  3  had  been  placed 
in  a  similar  but  less  neatly-made  cist,  com- 
posed of  eleven  instead  of  twelve  slabs,  and 
like  the  preceding  had  evidently  been  a 
"bone  burial,"  also  without  mortuary 
objects.  Judging  by  the  fragmentary  jaw 
and  other  bones,  the  remains  were  those  of 
a  person  advanced  in  years. 

OTHER  BURIALS. — Of  the  remaining 
burials  the  most  interesting  was  no.  5,  an 
adult  lying  extended  on  the  back,  heading 
west-southwest,  at  a  depth  of  7.5  ft.,  near 
the  middle  of  the  mound.  Near  the  left 
shin  were  20  triangular  arrowpoints,  some 
of  them  of  unusually  fine  workmanship,  for 
the  greater  part  pointing  toward  the  foot 
of  the  grave  as  if  they  had  been  attached 
to  the  arrow-shafts  when  buried;  while  to 
the  left  of  the  skull  lay  a  rectangular  block 
of  stone,  apparently  purposely  placed  there, 
but  unworked.  Many  of  the  bones  had 
disappeared.  The  remainder  were  in  bad 
condition,  but  still  enough  of  them  were 
left  to  photograph  (pi.  xxix).  The 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


90 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


remains  lay  in  a  bed  of  ashes  somewhat 
larger  than  the  skeleton  and  some  12  in. 
thick;  and  this,  together  with  the  fact  that 
no  disturbance  was  visible  in  the  mound 
soil  above  it,  gave  the  impression  that  the 
body  had  not  been  buried  in  a  grave  like  the 
rest,  but  that  the  mound  had  been  raised 
over  it. 

Other  burials,  none  of  which  were  ac- 
companied with  mortuary  offerings,  were 
no.  1,  a  "bone  burial,"  apparently  of  an 
adult,  lying  just  beneath  the  surface;  no. 
4,  the  remains  of  a  child  of  about  twelve 
years,  lying  flexed  on  the  right  side,  heading 
southwest,  at  a  depth  of  4  ft.;  and  no.  6, 
the  skull  and  bones  of  the  body  of  an  aged 
woman,  lying  on  the  right  side,  heading 
south,  at  a  depth  of  5.5  ft.,  but  lacking  the 
legs.  These  were  in  a  layer  of  earth,  3  or  4 
in.  thick,  that  had  been  burned  bright-red, 
and  the  skull  was  slightly  charred.  No  other 
bones  were  found,  but  just  north  of  Burial  4 
lay  four  slabs  of  limestone  arranged  as  if  to 
form  the  top  or  the  bottom  of  a  stone  grave, 
as  may  be  seen  in  pi.  xxx. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


DC  W 

LJ  Ld 

a.  2 

Q.  Z 


o  a: 

5  °- 

— 


AGE    OF    MOUNDS 

91 

REMAINING  MOUNDS 

Time  was  lacking  to  explore  the  remain- 

ing mounds  of  this  group,  one  of  which  in 

particular   looked   especially   favorable   on 

account  of  the  numerous  stone  grave-slabs 

protruding  from  almost  every  part  of  it. 

This  was  no.  3,  a  fine  conical  example  about 

15  ft.  high  and  85  ft.  in  diameter,  which 

would  have  taken  at  least  several  weeks 

to  examine  properly.     The  others  are  more 

ordinary  in  appearance,  no.  4  being  9  ft.  8  in. 

high,  with  a  diameter  of  some  60  ft.;  and 

no.  5,  6  ft.  9  in.  high  and  55  ft.  in  diameter. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Judging  by  the  condition  of  the  bones 

found  by  both  Mr  Moore  and  the  writer's 

party  in  the  mounds  of  this  group,  and 

from  general  appearances,   these  mounds, 

like  the  upland  mounds  at  Lenoir  City,  seem 

considerably    older     than     the    obviously 

Cherokee  burials,  even  the  prehistoric  ones, 

found  in  the  Bussell  Place  cemeteries  and 

later  in   the  mounds  on  Hiwassee  island. 

Yet  the  only  artifacts  found  with  a  burial, 

the  fine  triangular  points,  seem  to  be  of 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

92 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

Cherokee  type,  and  the  finding  by  Mr 
Moore  of  conch  columellae  with  a  burial 

\ 

in  another  mound  here  suggests  the  fond- 
ness of  this  people  for  imported  ocean  shells. 
These  characteristics  were  shared,  however, 
by  at  least  one  other  people  farther  down  the 
river,  who  also  partially  burned  the  bodies 
of  some  of  their  dead  after  laying  them  in 
the  graves,  as  was  observed  in  this  mound, 
but  whose  connection  with  the  Cherokee 

is  doubtful. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

93 

VI.  FIRST  WORK  ON  HIWASSEE 
ISLAND 

HIWASSEE,    formerly    known    as 
l^__g      Tollv's  island,  is  situated  in  Meies 

^^]     county,  Tenn.,  its  position  in  the 

Big  Tennessee  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Hiwassee  being  similar   to   that  of  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Little 
Tennessee.    The  nearest  town  of  importance 
is  Dayton,  across  the  river  in  Rhea  county, 
about  6  miles  distant.    It  is  the  property 
of  Mr  and  Mrs  P.  D.  Benham,  who  kindly 
granted  us  permission  to  excavate;  and  the 
writer  wishes  to  take  this  opportunity  to 
express  his  grateful  appreciation  not  only 
for  this  favor,  but  for  their  cordial  assist- 
ance  in   many   ways   and   their   generous 
hospitality  to  the  members  of  the  expedition. 

GENERAL  CHARACTER  OF  THE  ISLAND 

The  island  is  roughly  "triangular,  as  may 
be   seen   by    the   accompanying  map    (pi. 
xxxi),  with  a  length  of  nearly   two  miles 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

94 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

on  Tennessee  river,  a  width  of  a  little  more 

than  a  mile,  and  an  area  of  740  acres.    The 

surface,  which  is  fairly   level,  with  a  few 

slight  ridges,  has  an  elevation  sufficient  to  be 

out  of  reach  of  all  but  the  highest  floods 

on  the  river;  and  even  in  these  the  ridges 

are  rarely  submerged.    In  fact,  Mr  Ben- 

ham  has  heard  of  but  one  occasion,  about 

1867,  when   the  entire  island  was  under 

water,  and  even  then  the  great  Indian  mound 

at   the  upper  end  was  not  covered,  but 

afforded  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  inhabitants 

and  their  live-stock.    As  is   the  case  with 

Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island,  the  position  of 

Hiwassee  island  at  the  confluence  of  Hi- 

wassee  and  Tennessee  rivers,  and  conse- 

quently at  the  junction  of  two  aboriginal 

travel  routes,   is  probably  responsible  in 

large  measure  for  its  former  importance 

to  the  Indians  as  a  place  of  residence,  and 

consequently    for    the    abundance    of    its 

ancient  remains  today. 

HISTORY 

Historically,  the  island  possesses  an  un- 

usual interest  as  the  former  home  of  John 

INDIAN    NOTES 

1 

HIWASSEE    ISLAND 

95 

Jolly    (Ahu'lude'gi),13   the   Cherokee   chief 

who  was  the  special  friend  and  adopted 

father  of  Gen.  Sam  Houston,  and  whose 

name  was  long  applied  to  it.     This  affords 

us  a  definite  basis  for  identifying  the  latest 

aboriginal  culture  of  the  island,  which  bears 

evidence  of  contact  with   the  whites,   as 

Cherokee,  and  this  in  turn  helps  us  with 

other  problems,  as  will  appear.    Although 

this  locality  falls  well  within  the  Cherokee 

domain,    as   later   established,14   Haywood 

cites  a  tradition  to  the  effect  that  while 

this  tribe  found  no  other  Indians  up-stream 

on  the  Tennessee  when  they  first  occupied 

the  country,  there  were  some  Creeks  living 

near  the  mouth  of  the  Hiwassee  'at  that 

time,  and  that  the  latter  Indians  claimed 

*. 

all  the  streams  to  the  southward.    From 

these   historical   data,    the  importance  of 

establishing  the  identity  of  the  last  Indian 

inhabitants  of  the  island  is  evident. 

Of  Houston  and  his  relations  with  Jolly, 

Mooney13  says: 

"Being  of  an  adventurous  disposition,  he 

[Houston]  left  home  when  16  years  old,  and, 

crossing  over  the  [Tennessee]  river,  joined  the 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

96 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

Cherokees,  among  whom  he  soon  became  a  great 
favorite,  being  adopted  into  the  family  of  Chief 
Jolly,  from  whom  the  island  at  the  mouth  of 
Hiwassee  takes  its  name." 

Jolly  removed  to  Arkansas  from  his  home 

at  the  mouth  of  the  Hiwassee  in  1818,  16  since 

which  date  there  have  probably  been  only 

occasional  visits  to  the  island  by  the  Indians. 

One  of  these  visits  took  place  as  late  as  1907, 

when  an  elderly  Cherokee  came  to  the  island, 

apparently  merely   to  see  how  it  looked. 

He  told  the  Benhams  that  his  people  had 

formerly  lived  on  the  upper  end,  near  the 

big  mound,  and  that  his  -grandmother  was 

buried  there. 

PREVIOUS  EXPLORATION 

The  writer  succeeded,  with  the  help  of 

Lieut.  Dayton  Benham,  son  of  the  owners, 

in  locating  and  plotting  16  ancient  mounds 

on  Hiwassee  island,  as  may  be  seen  by  the 

accompanying  map  (pi.  xxxi)  ;  but  Thomas,17 

in    his    Catalogue   of    Prehistoric    Works, 

mentions  "a  group  of  twenty-four  mounds 

on  Jolly's  Island  at  the  junction  of  Tennes- 

see and  Hiwassee  rivers,"  on  the  authority 

INDIAN    NOTES 

EXPLORATION 


of  J.  W.  Emmert,  who,  he  states,  explored 
five  of  them.  As  Moore18  says,  there  may 
well  have  been  twenty-four  mounds  trace- 
able at  the  time  of  Mr  Emmert's  visit,  of 
which  eight  have  since  been  destroyed  by 
cultivation,  if  not  leveled  during  the  course 
of  his  operations,  of  which,  by  the  way, 
the  writer  has  seen  no  published  account, 
although  the  island  and  the  large  mound 
are  mentioned  in  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology 
report.19 

Another  exploration  of  the  island,  of 
which  no  account  has  been  published,  was 
made  by  Mr  George  D.  Barnes,  of  Dayton, 
Tenn.,  who,  with  Lieutenant  Benham,  spent 
several  months  in  excavation  during  1911. 
They  thoroughly  explored  one  mound  at 
the  lower  end  (pi.  xxxi,  no.  8),  finding  five 
burials,  one  of  which  was  accompanied  with 
a  single  arrowpoint  and  numerous  beads, 
some  of  them  unfinished,  made  of  large 
marine  shells.  Then,  after  testing  the 
mound  we  call  no.  1  without  success,  except 
for  the  discovery  of  a  few  human  bones, 
they  dug  a  number  of  trenches  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  big  mound  (no.  16).  Here  they  found 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


98 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


many  skeletons  representing  in  the  main 
the  colonial  and  late  pre-colonial  periods 
of  Cherokee  occupancy,  if  we  may  judge  by 
the  fact  that  while  some  graves  contained 
articles  of  iron  and  brass,  and  glass  beads, 
obtained  from  the  whites,  in  addition  to 
those  of  Indian  make,  many  contained  na- 
tive artifacts  only.  That  all  were  from  the 
same  tribe  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  all  the  native  material  in  the  graves 
was  of  similar  character,  whether  found  with 
traders'  goods  or  not;  and  that  this  tribe 
was  Cherokee  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
they  and  they  alone  are  historically  known 
to  have  inhabited  the  island  throughout  the 
colonial  period  and  up  to  1818.  Lieutenant 
Benham's  share  of  the  collection  may  still 
be  seen  at  his  residence  on  the  island; 
but  Mr  Barnes'  share  had  been  sold  and 
scattered. 

According  to  Jones,20  part  of  what  seems 
to  have  been  this  cemetery  was  uncovered 
by  the  spring  freshet  of  1867,  and  "long 
rows  of  graves,  clay  pots,  teeth  and  other 
relics"  were  disclosed.  Local  report  has 
it  that  in  1900,  or  a  little  later,  a  small  image 


INDIAN    NOTES 


EXPLORATION 

99 

or  idol  of  stone  was  plowed  up  in  or  near  the 

mound  we  designate  as  no.  1,  and  that  the 

finder  immediately  set  to  digging  and  un- 

earthed six  more,  the  whole  lot  ranging  in 

height  from  10  to  20  in.;  that  he  sold  them, 

and  that  they  are  now  scattered  in  private 

collections. 

The  last  exploration  before  the  arrival  of 

our  expedition  was   that  of  Mr  Moore,21 

who  says: 

"This  island,  as  to  which  there  is  a  report 
respecting  the  finding  of  a  stone  image,  has  an 
added  interest  as  being  the  starting  point  of  a 
great  chain  of  groups  of  comparatively  low  coni- 
cal mounds  extending  up  Tennessee  river  to 
Lenoir  City,  a  distance  of  101  miles  by  water." 

After  giving  the  dimensions  of  the  prin- 

cipal tumuli,  Mr  Moore  describes  his  ex- 

cavations of  Mound  E,  called  by  us  Mound 

9,  as  follows: 

"To  avoid  disturbing  trees,  an  excavation  10 
feet  long  by  about  6  feet  wide  was  made  some- 
what away  from  the  center.     The  mound  was 
composed   of  sandy  clay  of  a  brown  shade. 
Thirty  inches  down  a  fragment  of  decaying 
bone  about  one  inch  in  length  was  encountered. 
Other  than  this  fragment,  no  bones  were  dis- 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

100 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


covered  in  the  mound,  nor  was  any  fireplace  or 
midden-debris  found  in  the  digging. 

"At  a  depth  of  5  feet  10  inches  an  indistinct 
basal  line  was  discovered,  beneath  which  was 
undisturbed,  yellow  clay. 

"Not  central  in  the  excavation,  but  nearly  so 
as  to  the  base  of  the  mound,  a  pit  was  discov- 
ered, 3  feet  by  3  feet  4  inches,  extending  one 
foot  into  the  yellow  clay  and  filled  with  the 
brown  soil  of  the  mound.  How  far  this  pit 
extended  into  the  body  of  the  mound,  if  at  all, 
could  not  be  determined.  The  contents  of  this 
pit  were  removed  with  the  utmost  care  with  the 
aid  of  a  trowel,  having  in  view  the  possible 
presence  of  a  burial,  but  not  even  the  crown  of 
a  tooth  was  unearthed. 

"Together,  on  the  base  of  the  pit,  in  a  little 
pile,  were:  a  hone  of  sandstone",  elliptical  in  out- 
line, 4.5  inches  by  3.5  inches;  a  pebble-hammer, 
discoidal,  2.25  inches  in  diameter;  a  triangular 
point  of  flint,  about  2  inches  in  length;  an  object 
of  slate,  about  5  inches  long,  resembling  a  celt 
but  having  a  rounded,  blunt  edge  and  possessing 
on  one  side,  at  one  end,  a  lustre,  as  if  conferred 
by  wear;  a  similar  object  of  slate,  slightly  more 
than  3  inches  long,  having  lost  a  part  of  one 
end  through  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  make  a 
perforation,  and  having  a  depression  below  the 
fracture  where  another  hole  had  been  attempted; 
still  another  object  of  slate,  of  the  type  of  the 
foregoing,  3.3  inches  in  length,  this  one,  how- 
ever, having  a  perforation  at  one  end." 

This  was  the  only  mound  explored  by  Mr 
Moore  on  this  site. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


EXPLORATION 

101 

THE  MOUNDS 

As  before  related,  an  early  report  places 

the  number  of  mounds  on  the  island  as  24; 

we  found  but  16  still  traceable,  of  which  six 

were  outwardly  in  good  condition,  never 

having  been  under  cultivation,  while  the 

rest  were  more  or  less  damaged  by  the  plow, 

by  erosion,  and  through  the  work  of  pre- 

vious investigators.    Their  situation  on  the 

island  is  brought  out  by  the  accompanying 

map  (pi.  xxxi),  in  which  the  mounds  still 

in  good  condition  are  shown  in  solid  black, 

the  damaged  ones  by  black  circles.    The 

mounds  we  explored  or  tested  are  numbered 

from  1  to  5,  the  rest  from  6  to  16.    Of  the 

group  in  general,  Mr  Moore22  says: 

"At  the  extreme  upper  end  of  the  island,  and 

in  sight  from  most  of  it,  is  a  mound  (A)  22.5 

feet  in  height,23  which  probably  has  been  square 

or  nearly  so  as  to  its  basal  dimensions,  but  at 

present,  through  wash  in  periods  of  high  water, 

its  outline  is  irregular.     Its  basal  diameter  is 

136  feet,  58  feet  of  which  are  under  the  summit- 

plateau,  which  is  flat,  wooded,  including  an  oak- 

tree  of  great  age,  and  gives  no  indication  of 

ever  having  been  under  cultivation. 

"At  various  distances  apart,  extending  down 

the  island,  not  in  line,  are  three  mounds,  B.  C. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

CALIFORNIA 


102 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

and  D,  while  near  together,  toward  the  lower 

end  of  the  island,  are  two  mounds,  E  and  F. 

There  are  also  scattered  over  the  island  various 

humps  and  rises  and  parts  of  mounds  that  have 

been  mostly  plowed  away.     .     . 

"As  the  owners  of  the  island  take  great  inter- 

est in  archeology,  and  desire,  so  far  as  possible, 

to  preserve  intact  the  mounds  now  on  their 

island,   none  of  those  herein  particularly  de- 

scribed has  been  plowed  over  or  dug  into   to 

any  appreciable  extent,  excepting,  of  course,  the 

one  (E)  investigated  by  us." 

MOUND  1 

The  first  tumulus  examined  by  our  expe- 

dition (no.  1),  although  long  under  cultiva- 

tion, still  retains  a  height  of  about  5  ft., 

its  length  from  north  to  south  being  about 

70  ft.,  its  width  60  ft.     It  lies  nearest  of  all 

the   group   to   the   great  platform   mound 

(no.   16),  and  this,  together  with  the  fact 

that  the  seven  stone  images  are  said  to  have 

been  found  in  or  near  it,  led  us  to  select  it 

for  our  first  investigations  on  the  island. 

STRUCTURE.  —  It  was  soon  found  that  the 

mound  consists  of  earth  of  various  kinds, 

patches     of     brownish-looking,    weathered 

surface  soil  and  of  sand  being  mingled  with 

others  of  village  refuse  and  of  yellow,  clayey 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND    1 

subsoil.  Where,  for  instance,  a  small  patch 
of  black  "village  dirt"  occurred,  showing 
distinctly  in  a  mass  of  other  materials,  it 
was  noticed  that  the  amount  was  usually 
about  a  bushel,  more  or  less,  that  is,  about 
what  a  man  could  conveniently  carry,  and 
the  explanation  seemed  to  be  that  the  build- 
ers had  scraped  up  the  soil  into  baskets  or 
robes  wherever  they  could  get  at  it  conven- 
iently, in  or  about  the  village,  and  had 
dumped  it,  a  load  at  a  time,  upon  the  grow- 
ing mound.  Part  may  have  come  from  the 
large  crescentic  excavation  lying  just  west 
of  the  tumulus,  but  this  was  also  in  all 
probability  the  source  of  much  of  the  ma- 
terial for  the  great  platform  mound. 

CONTENTS. — Our  excavation  of  this  mound 
consisted  merely  of  a  single  trench  about 
15  ft.  wide,  commenced  on  the  eastern  side, 
and  carried  westward  to  a  point  well  beyond 
the  center,  a  trench  which  revealed  but  eight 
burials  besides  the  loose  bones  found  in  Mr 
Barnes'  shaft.  Most  were  traceable  only 
by  crumbling  fragments  of  skulls  and  long- 
bones,  the  respective  placing  of  which  in- 
dicated that  most  if  not  all  of  the  bodies 


103 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


104 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


had  been  lying  on  their  sides  in  a  flexed 
position.  All  the  burials  except  one  appear- 
ed to  belong  to  about  the  same  period  as 
those  in  the  Bussell  mound  group  near  Le- 
noir  City,  and  those  at  the  Upper  Hamp- 
ton place,  which,  although  possibly  Chero- 
kee, are  obviously  much  older  than  the 
average  of  Cherokee  burials,  such  as  were 
found  at  Lenoir  island,  the  Mainland 
village-site  near  Lenoir  City,  and  later  on 
Hiwassee  island  itself. 

Four  of  the  eight  burials  were  entirely 
without  mortuary  offerings,  but  one  was  ac- 
companied with  a  triangular  arrowpoint  and 
a  pottery  disc,  another  with  a  large  triangu- 
lar arrowpoint,  a  third  with  the  crumbling 
fragments  of  a  globular  vessel  of  earthen- 
ware, a  fourth  with  an  interesting  collection 
of  artifacts.  This  latter  was  Burial  5, 
shown  in  pi.  xxxn,  the  only  really  interest- 
ing interment  found  in  the  entire  mound. 
Hardly  16  inches  below  the  present  surface, 
fragments  of  bone  indicated  the  remains  of  a 
full-grown  man,  lying  flexed  on  the  left  side, 
heading  a  little  south  of  west.  Near  where 
the  feet  had  been  was  a  small  inverted  pot 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


.>   . 


BURIAL  IN    MOUND  1.    HIWASSEE  ISLAND,   NEAR  DAYTON. 

TENN.,    SHOWING    POSITIONS    OF    VESSELS 

AND   IMPLEMENTS 


MORTUARY   DEPOSITS 


105 


of  thin,  hard,  ware,  bearing  an  incised  deco- 
ration (pi.  LII),  while  near  the  left  shoulder 
was  another  of  larger  size,  but  plain,  also 
inverted.  At  the  back  of  the  head  were  two 
globular  vessels,  one  representing  the  head 
of  an  owl,  both  so  badly  disintegrated  that 
they  could  not  be  restored;  while  10  inches 
to  the  southwest  lay  a  sunfish  effigy-bowl 
(pi.  LXI),  in  fair  condition.  In  spite  of  the 
disintegrated  condition  of  the  bones,  nearly 
as  bad  as  that  of  the  other  skeletons  in  the 
mound  which  undoubtedly  date  from  an 
early  period,  the  pottery  found  with  this 
burial  identifies  it  as  Cherokee,  for  frag- 
ments of  such  vessels  were  abundant  in  all 
the  Cherokee  deposits  we  examined.  On 
the  back  of  the  crumbling  skull  itself  lay  a 
large  celt;  where  the  right  shoulder  had  been, 
a  smaller  one;  and  along  the  remains  of  the 
left  arm-bones  were  ranged  four  adze- 
blades  of  stone  (pi.  LXXIX,  a).  On  the 
pelvis  appeared  some  fragments  of  cut  mica, 
perhaps  the  remains  of  an  ornament. 

The  presence  of  so  many  woodworking 
tools  in  this  grave  derives  an  added  interest 
from  the  fact  that  the  fragments  of  the  lower 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


106 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


leg-bones  exhibited  a  serious  pathological 
condition,"  due  to  rheumatism,  perhaps, 
which  must  have  crippled  the  victim  and  pre- 
vented him  from  hunting  as  a  means  of 
livelihood.  For  this  reason  he  probably 
took  up  woodworking — the  manufacture  of 
wooden  canoes,  bowls,  etc. — and  exchanged 
his  products  for  food  and  clothing.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that 
the  writer  has  seen  several  instances  of 
woodworking  and  arrow-making  tools  buried 
with  the  remains  of  cripples,  one  of  them  on 
the  Silverheels  site  near  Irving,  N.  Y.,  ex- 
plored by  Mr  Arthur  C.  Parker,  now  State 
Archeologist  of  New  York,  and  himself  in 
1904,  for  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Harvard 
University. 

LIMESTONE  BASIN. — Another  interesting 
feature  of  Mound  1  was  a  curious  structure 
found  at  a  depth  of  2.4  ft.  in  the  north- 
western portion,  consisting  of  a  kind  of 
basin,  circular  in  form,  about  2  ft.  in  di- 
ameter and  8  in.  deep,  made  of  ten  small 
pieces  of  limestone  fitted  together.  It  con- 
tained nothing  affording  a  clue  to  its  pur- 
pose, but  about  one  foot  above,  and  a  little 


INDIAN    NOTES 


GENERAL   DIGGING 

107 

to  the  north,  lay  a  small,  neat  discoidal  of 

limestone.     Perhaps  the    structure   was   a 

small,  circular,  stone  grave,  like  those  found 

at  the  Upper  Hampton  place,  intended  as 

the  receptacle  for  a  "bone  burial,"  all  traces 

of  which  in  this  case  had  disappeared. 

GENERAL  DIGGING.  —  The  general  digging 

in  Mound  1  yielded  but  few  artifacts,  merely 

a  few  triangular  arrowpoints  and  ordinary 

potsherds,  with  one  fragment  of  polychrome 

ware  such  as  was  found  by  Moore24  on  the 

Bennett  place  below  Chattanooga. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

108 

VII.  EXCAVATION  OF  MOUND   2 
SITUATION  AND  STRUCTURE 

THE  first  mound  on  the  river-bank, 
going  down-stream,  distant  some 

fHH!      1200  ft.  from  the  high  platform 

mound    (no.    16),   is   Mound   2, 
which  yielded  the  largest  number  of  burials 
(fifty-seven)  of  any  found  during  the  entire 
expedition.    Oval  in  form,  with  the  longest 
axis  north  and  south,  some  10  or  15  ft.  of  its 
northern  extremity  has  been  washed  away 
by  the  river;  but  the  part  remaining  still 
measures  approximately.  50  by  60  ft.,  and 
has  the  outline  shown  in  pi.  xxxm.    The 
height,  apparently,  has  been  considerably 
reduced  by  frequent  plowing,  for  it  measured 
only  about  4  ft.  at  the  highest  part,  near  the 
river-bank,  and  the  edges  showed  a  deposit 
of  mixed  debris  evidently  dragged  from  the 
crest     by     cultivation.    Our    excavations 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON  — CHEROKEE  REMA 


Sca/e  of  fe 


«?  ?  !  9 


PLAN    OF    MO 


MOUND   2 


109 


showed  that  the  origi- 
nal mound  had  been 
built  in  almost  circu- 
lar form  on  an  ancient 
village  layer  apparent- 
ly left  by  the  "Round 
Grave  people,"  of  "vil- 
lage dirt,"  sand,  and 
a  little  clay-loam 
subsoil  in  irregular 
patches,  scraped  up 
largely  from  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the 
mound  itself  in  such  a 
way  as  to  leave  a  pe- 
ripheral ditch  (fig.  11). 
There  were  also  in 
places  patches  of 
coarse,  gray,  river 
sand,  apparently 
brought  up  from  the 
bed  of  the  Tennessee. 
At  a  later  period 
layers  of  musselshells 
(pi.  xxxrv)  and  clay 
were  added  about  the 


Ra 


'1 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


110 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


periphery,  particu- 
larly on  the  south- 
ern side  (fig.  12), 
filling  up  the  ditch, 
making  the  mound 
considerably  larg- 
er, and  changing 
its  outline  from 
circular  to  oval. 
It  was  noticed  that 
the  potsherds 
found  mixed  with 
this  added  material 
were  simpler  than 
the  usual  Cherokee 
ware,  and  had  an 
appearance  much 
more  like  the  pot- 
tery made  until 
recently  by  the 
Creeks  than  like 
typical  Middle 
Mississippi  Valley 
styles.  Fragments 
of  large  bowls  with 
incurving  rims, 


INDIAN    NOTES 


STRATIFICATION 

111 

somewhat  like  that  shown  in  pi.  XLIX,  b,  were 

in  the  majority,  with  a  few  pieces  of  cazuelas 

like  /  of  the  same  plate,  and  sherds  of  large 

pots  somewhat  like  g  but  without  handles  — 

entirely    without   decoration   except  for  a 

slight    suggestion    of   fabric    marking.    A 

curious  feature  not  seen  elsewhere  in  this 

region  was  the  presence  of  fragments  of 

vessels  with    legs.    Some   sherds   also  ap- 

peared  which    may    be    assigned    to    the 

"Round  Grave  people"  from  whose  village 

layer  part  of  the  material  for  the  addition 

to  the  mound  was  derived,  but  the  series 

as  a  whole  seems    to   represent    either  an 

early  and  undeveloped  stage  of  the  potter's 

art  among  the  Cherokee,  or  the  presence 

of  a  different  but  unknown  people,  follow- 

ing not  only  the  "Round  Grave"  period, 

but    the   builders   of  the  original   mound. 

UNDERLYING  VILLAGE  LAYER 

The  old  village  layer  above  mentioned,  on 

which   the  mound  had  been  constructed, 

varied  in  depth  from  10  in.  to  15  in.  and 

yielded   fragments   of   coarse  pottery   (in- 

cluding   some   from   vessels   with   pointed 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

112 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

bottoms),  fragments  of  steatite  pots,  and 

arrowheads  of  stemmed  types  very  different 

from  the  triangular  stemless  form  employed 

by  the  Cherokee,  all  of  which  are  character- 

istic of  the  "Round  Grave"  culture  found 

near  Lenoir  City.     Stones  crackled  by  heat 

were  also  abundant  in  the  deposit,  but  no 

burials  belonging  to  this  culture  appeared, 

although  one  small  pit  containing  a  single 

stemmed  arrowpoint  was  found. 

BURIALS 

No  fewer  than  57  burials  were  uncovered 

by  our  excavations  in  this  mound,  five  of 

them  containing  two  and  one  three  dis- 

tinguishable   individuals;     besides     which 

there  have  been  a  number  plowed  out,  if  we 

may  judge  by  the  scattered  fragments  of 

human  bones  picked  up  on   the  surface. 

That  these  were  not  all  without  mortuary 

offerings  may  be  assumed  from  the  fact 

that  an  earthen  vessel  containing  a  mask 

made  from  a  large  marine  shell  was  turned 

out  by  the  plow  on  or  near  this  mound  a  few 

years  ago,  and  now  reposes  in  Lieutenant 

Benham's  collection,  with  his  share  of  the 

INDIAN    NOTES 

BURIALS 

material  found  in  the  cemetery  near  the  big 
mound. 

The  interments  in  Mound  2  had  evidently 
been  made  from  time  to  time  over  a  con- 
siderable period,  for  there  were  marked 
differences  in  the  condition  of  the  bones  of 
the  various  skeletons.  An  adult  skeleton 
might  be  found  in  such  a  state  of  decomposi- 
tion that  disintegrating  fragments  only  of 
skull  and  long-bones  remained,  while  beside 
it  another  would  appear  lying  at  the  same 
depth  and  under  similar  conditions,  but 
fairly  well  preserved.  In  condition,  the 
older  skeletons  resembled  those  found  in  the 
mounds  of  the  Bussell  group,  at  the  Upper 
Hampton  place,  and  in  Mound  1  on  Hi- 
wassee  island,  just  described;  and  like  them 
they  had  been  placed  in  the  same  positions 
as  the  later  burials;  and  the  objects  found 
with  them  were  similar  in  character  to 
those  with  the  more  recent  interments.  No 
articles  of  European  origin  were  en- 
countered. 

Of  the  64  individuals  found  with  the  57 
burials,  comprising  53  adults,  5  infants,  and 
6  older  children  from  two  to  ten  years  of 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


113 


114 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


age,  we  classified  21  as  belonging  to  the 
early  period,  and  30  to  the  late,  while  13 
seemed  to  be  intermediate,  a  class  to  which 
the  richest  burials  belonged.  It  was  no- 
ticed also  that  all  the  early  burials  lay 
within  the  original  mound,  but  that  some 
of  the  intermediate  and  late  ones  lay  in  the 
peripheral  extension  built  later. 

Studying  the  orientation  of  early  burials, 
we  find  more  heading  southwest,  or  rather 
heading  in  directions  between  south  and 
west,  than  in  all  the  other  directions  to- 
gether; nearly  half  of  the  intermediates 
headed  in  the  same  directions;  but  the  ma- 
jority of  the  later  burials  were  headed  to- 
ward the  quadrant  between  north  and  east, 
nearly  equal  numbers,  however,  heading 
toward  the  southeast  and  southwest  quad- 
rants. From  these  data  we  may  infer  that 
while  the  earlier  people  had  a  distinct 
preference  for  interring  their  dead  with  the 
head  to  the  southwest,  the  later  Cherokee 
were  not  so  particular. 

Depths  ranged  from  8  in.,  within  reach  of 
the  plow,  to  4.7  ft.  As  to  position,  the 
early  people  seemed  to  prefer  to  flex  the 


INDIAN    NOTES 


BURIALS 

remains  on  the  right  side,' 10  of  the  skeletons 
being  found  in  this  position,  whereas  only  6 
lay  on  the  left  side.  Four  were  extended 
at  length  on  the  back,  and  a  fifth  was  ex- 
tended, but  face-down. 

It  seems  to  have  made  little  difference,  in 
the  intermediate  period,  on  which  side  the 
dead  lay,  for  we  found  5  on  the  right  side 
and  5  on  the  left ;  2  lay  on  the  back  with  knees 
bent  in  such  manner  that  the  heels  touched 
the  hips;  while  one  was  so  fragmentary  that 
the  position  could  not  be  determined. 

In  the  later  period,  burial  flexed  on  the 
right  side  was  by  far  the  most  general,  for  18 
skeletons  were  in  this  position,  while  only 
6  lay  on  the  left  side;  one  was  extended,  face- 
upward;  another,  face-down;  2  lay  on  their 
backs  with  knees  raised;  one  was  a  disarticu- 
lated "bone  burial,"  and  one  was  too  frag- 
mentary to  afford  any  idea  of  its  position. 

Only  six  of  the  53  adults  could  positively 
be  recorded  as  women,  but  the  proportions 
of  the  sexes  were  probably  about  equal,  for 
although  the  greater  number  of  skeletons 
could  not  be  conclusively  identified  in  this 
respect,  those  with  lighter  lower  jaws  and 


115 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


116 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

slenderer,    smoother    bones,    which    were 

probably  women,  seemed  fully  as  numerous 

as  the  heavy-jawed  skeletons  whose  stronger 

bones  with  prominent  ridges  for  the  at- 

tachment of  the  muscles  suggested  males. 

MORTUARY  OFFERINGS 

EARLY  PERIOD 

Turning  now  to  that  feature  of  the  burials 

which    holds    most    interest    for     us  —  the 

placing  of  artifacts  with  the  dead,  —  we  find 

that  only  eight    of  the  21   early  burials 

showed  anything  of  the  kind,  and  of  these 

only  two  had  really  interesting  deposits. 

The  most  noteworthy  of  these  was  Burial  23, 

the  crumbling  skull  and  long-bones  of  which 

alone  remained  to  indicate,  as  shown  in  pi. 

xxxv,  that  the  body  had  been  buried  in  an 

extended  position,  face-down,  heading  just 

south  of  west,   with   thighs  crossed.    Al- 

though found  only  15  in.  beneath  the  sur- 

face, it  was  evident  that  the  original  depth, 

before  the  height  of  the  mound  was  reduced 

by    cultivation,    had    been    considerably 

greater.    Under  the  skull  and  between  it 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PL.    XXXV 


BURIAL    IN     MOUND    2,     HIWASSEE    ISLAND.    NEAR    DAYTON. 

TENN..  SHOWING  POSITION  OF  CONCH  CORES 

AND   IMPLEMENTS 


MORTUARY    DEPOSITS 


117 


and  the  right  shoulder  were  found  165  beads 
made  of  small  marine  shells  (Olivelld);  at 
the  right  shoulder  three  beads,  six  inches 
long,  made  from  the  columellae  of  conch- 
shells;  along  the  right  arm  11  similar 
columellae,  some  more  than  9  in.  long  (pi. 
LXXX,  e)  and  only  a  few  perforated,  were 
arranged  as  seen  in  pi.  xxxv,  in  addition  to 
a  large  celt;  near  the  waist,  on  the  right  side, 
an  adze-blade,  a  rasp  of  sandstone,  a  small 
celt,  a  small  discoidal  stone,  three  pieces  of 
split  deer-bone,  and  several  musselshells; 
and  at  the  right  knee,  pointing  eastward, 
four  triangular  arrowpoints,  two  of  them  of 
fine  workmanship.  On  the  left  side  of  the 
back  lay  an  engraved,  thick,  stone  gorget 
broken  into  two  pieces  (fig.  57),  a  small 
concretion  probably  used  as  a  paintrcup,  a 
black  paint-stone,  apparently  graphite,  a 
rasp  of  sandstone,  a  flint  knife,  three  tri- 
angular arrowpoints,  a  core  (fig.  40),  three 
blocks,  some  chips,  and  three  chipped  stones, 
all  of  flint ;  while  near  the  left  arm  appeared 
three  more  triangular  points;  at  the  neck  two 
flint  knives,  and  beneath  the  left  side  of 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


118 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


the  skull  a  piece  of  a  neatly-made  and  highly- 
polished  bone  bodkiu  (pi.  LXXV,  b). 

The  second  interesting  burial  of  the  early 
group  was  no.  52,  the  barely  distinguishable 
bones  of  a  young  person  about  fifteen  years 
of  age,  seemingly  a  girl,  lying  flexed  loosely 
on  the  left  side,  head  toward  the  south,  at 
a  depth  of  3  ft.  About  the  neck  had  been 
a  necklace  comprising  62  beads  of  Olivella 
shell,  six  disc  beads  of  shell,  about  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  in  diameter,  eight  beads 
of  conch-shell,  of  ordinary  type,  13  pendants 
made  of  small  conch-columellae,  and  four 
other  shell  pendants. 

Other  graves  containing  specimens  were 
no.  15,  having  a  small  triangular  arrow- 
point  near  (.!••;  hips,  and  some  loose  ani- 
mal and  human  bones,  among  which  was 
part  of  a  bone  implement  showing  decora- 
tion by  engraved  lines;  no.  20,  with  the 
columella  of  a  conch-shell  lying  on  the 
skull;  no.  38,  which  had  a  lump  of  baked 
clay,  molded  into  form  by  hand,  at  the 
head;  no.  47,  a  broken  celt;  no.  49,  a  conch- 
columella  near  the  breast,  and  no.  50,  one 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON  — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


SKELETON     IN     UNUSUAL     POSITION,     MOUND    2,     HIWASSEE 
ISLAND.    NEAR    DAYTON.   TENNESSEE 


O   co 
Z»t 


MORTUARY   DEPOSITS 

119 

conch-columella  at  the  ehin  and  three  in 

the  hands. 

Besides    these,    another    early    skeleton 

(no.  9)  had  a  dog  buried  at  its  feet;  and  one 

- 

(no.    22)    had    one    triangular   arrowpoint 

against   the  bones   of   the  right   hip  and 

another  under  the  edge  of  the  right  shoulder- 

blade,  both  of  which  had  apparently  been 

shot  into  the  flesh  from  the  front.    The 

right  arm  of  this  skeleton  was  thrown  across 

the  head  as  the  photograph   (pi.  xxxvi) 

shows,  a  most  unusual  position.    No.  20, 

mentioned  above  as  having  a  conch-colu" 

mella  buried  with  it,  had  evidently  been 

shot  in  the  left  upper  arm  with  an  arrow, 

for  a  triangular  flint  point  was  found  there, 

its  tip  resting  against  the  bone. 

INTERMEDIATE  PERIOD 

Of  the  13  graves  apparently  belonging 

to  the  intermediate  period,  two  were  espe- 

cially interesting  on  account  of  their  mor- 

tuary deposits,  while  four  others  contained 

at  least  some  artifacts.    One  of  the  richest 

was  no.  44,  which  was  that  of  an  adult, 

flexed  on  the  right  side  with  head  toward 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

120 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


the  south-southeast,  at  a  depth  of  about 
9  in.,  just  out  of  reach  of  the  plow.  The 
left  arm  was  folded  across  the  abdomen, 
the  right  extended  naturally  at  the  side. 
On  the  right  shoulder  lay  a  thick  discoidal 
stone  of  the  biconcave  type,  on  the  lower 
right  breast  a  similar  one,  while  between 
them  was  a  large  celt,  painted  red  (pi. 
LXXIV,  b),  all  of  which  are  shown  in  situ  in 
pi.  xxxvu.  When  the  celt  was  lifted,  five 
excellent  triangular  arrowpoints  and  a 
slender  flint  drill  were  found  beneath  it; 
while  on  the  left  breast  a  mass  of  worked 
bones  included  four  double-pointed  bone 
awls,  an  awl  made  from  a  bone  with  the 
joint  left  as  a  handle  (pi.  LXXV,  c),  an  awl 
made  from  a  turkey-bone,  another  from  a 
splinter  of  deer-bone,  a  broken  bone  spear  - 
or  arrow-point,  a  fine  long  bone  awl  painted 
red,  and  a  number  of  fragmentary  awls 
and  pieces  of  bone,  the  latter  apparently 
saved  as  material  for  implements.  At  the 
shoulders  were  groups  of  long  shell  beads, 
some  of  them  showing,  besides  the  longi- 
tudinal perforation,  a  transverse  hole  near 
one  end  (pi.  LXXX,  b),  as  if  for  pendants; 


INDIAN    NOTES 


!! 

UJ    < 

I  Q 
wo: 

Q  < 
<   2 

£d 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE  BURIAL  SHOWING  POSITION  OF  PIPE  NEAR  SKULL. 
MOUND  2.  HIWASSEE  ISLAND.  NEAR  DAYTON.  TENNESSEE 


MORTUARY   DEPOSITS 


121 


perhaps  these  beads  were  strung  together 
as  ear-ornaments.  Near  the  right  shoulder 
also  appeared  a  mass  of  dark-red  paint, 
together  with  an  unfinished  arrowpoint,  a 
flint  core,  and  a  flint  chip,  while  under  the 
right  knee  were  three  finely-worked  tri- 
angular points  of  flint,  their  tips  toward  the 
northwest.  The  most  curious  feature  of 
the  burial,  never  previously  seen  by  the 
writer,  was  a  number  of  Olivella  shell  beads, 
some  eleven  hundred  in  all,  covering  parts 
of  the  breast  of  the  skeleton  from  chin  to 
waist  in  such  a  way  that  they  seemed  to 
have  been  sewn  on  a  garment  of  some  kind. 
The  other  unusually  rich  burial  which 
we  attributed  to  the  intermediate  period, 
no.  48  (pi.  xxxvm),  was  provided  with  a 
similar  but  more  elaborate  garment,  to 
which  had  been  attached  more  than  9000 
Olivella  shell  beads,  covering  the  skeleton 
from  chin  to  waist.  This  skeleton,  which  lay 
flexed  on  the  left  side,  heading  east,  at  a  depth 
of  17  in.,  was  provided  also  with  a  large 
pendant  of  conch-shell  (pi.  LXXXI,  b)  on 
the  breast,  a  large  barrel-shaped  bicon- 
cave discoidal  stone  beneath  the  left  knee 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


122 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


(pi.  LXXXV,  a),  and  a  deposit  in  front  of  the 
face  consisting  of  a  long  bone  spearhead 
decorated  with  transverse  engraved  lines  (pi. 
LXXI,  b),  a  thin  celt,  and  several  mussel- 
shells.  Among  these  lay  a  fine  triangular 
arrowpoint.  Back  of  the  skull  were  the 
remains  of  a  large  bone  tube,  once  evidently 
highly  polished.  The  whole  body  had 
evidently  been  covered  with  matting,  the 
imprints  of  which  could  still  be  plainly 
seen..  The  legs  of  this  skeleton  were  raised 
some  six  inches  higher  than  the  skull,  and 
investigation  showed  beneath  them  the 
crumbling  skull  and  part  of  the  bones  of  a 
two-year-old  child,  separated  from  the 
bones  of  the  adult  by  an  inch  or  two  of 
earth.  The  diggers  of  the  adult's  grave  had 
apparently  encountered  this  previous  inter- 
ment, and  not  wishing  to  disturb  it,  had 
left  it  covered  with  a  little  earth,  even 
though  it  raised  the  legs  of  the  body  they 
were  burying  higher  than  its  head. 

Other  burials  of  this  period  with  mor- 
tuary offerings  were:  no.  6,  with  two  arrow- 
points  behind  the  skull;  no.  12,  of  which 
the  lower  jaw,  arms,  and  hands  only  were 


INDIAN    NOTES 


MORTUARY    DEPOSITS 

123 

left,  with  five  conch-columellae  and  one  fine 

triangular   arrowpoint;    no.    25,   with   one 

triangular  arrowpoint  near  the  middle  of 

the  back;  and  no.  37,  with  a  small,  rec- 

tangular,   stone    tablet    engraved    with    a 

cross  on  each  side  (fig.  63,  Z>),  a  small  awl 

made  of  fisji-bone,  a  triangular  arrowpoint, 

a  flint  core,  and  the  bones  of  a  young  dog. 

This   last   burial   lay    in    an   almost  solid 

deposit  of  musselshells,  and  for  this  reason 

the  bones  were  all  present,  as  the  lime  from 

the  shells  saturated  the  filling  of  the  grave 

and  prevented  the  lime  of  the  bones  from 

leaching  away  as  it  would  naturally  have 

done  if  they  had  been  buried  in  soil.     Most 

of  the  animal  matter  had  disappeared,  how- 

ever, for  the  skeleton  was  very  brittle. 

LATER  PERIOD 

Turning  to  the  30  later  graves,  we  find 

12  of  them  containing  mortuary  deposits, 

but  sparse  ones,  each  skeleton  having  but 

few  objects.    Burial  1,  for  example,  con- 

tained the  flexed  skeleton  of  a  twd-year-old 

child,  at  the  sides  of  whose  head  lay  a  pair 

of  shell  ear-pins  (pi.  LXXXII,  h,  t),  while  a 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

124 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


mass  of  disarticulated  bones  of  a  man  lay 
above  and  to  the  west  of  it.  Near  the  feet 
of  Burial  2  were  found  the  remains  of  a 
large,  red,  earthen  bowl  containing  the 
fragments  of  a  black  pot  with  handles; 
near  the  right  shoulder  of  no.  3  (pi.  xxxix), 
which  lay  beneath  it,  a  large  earthen  pipe 
(pi.  LXXXIV,  b),  and  near  its  left  knee  a 
smoothing-stone. 

A  circular  shell  gorget  (pi.  LXXXI,  a), 
with  scalloped  edges  and  traces  of  a  "  tris- 
kele"  pattern  engraved  on  one  side,  was 
found  clutched  in  the  right  hand  of  Burial 
13,  as  shown  in  pi.  XL,  while  no.  19  had 
only  one  arrowpoint.  The  skull  of  this 
burial  showed  that  the  individual  had  been 
scalped,  but  had  survived  for  some  time — 
long  enough  for  the  ,  wound  to  fester, 
seriously  affecting  the  bone.  To  the  north 
of  this  skeleton,  in  the  same  grave,  lay  the 
remains  of  a  child  of  twelve  years,  buried 
face-down  in  an  extended  position. 

About  the  neck  of  no.  21  had  been  a 
string  of  65  large  shell  beads,  while  at  the 
sides  of  the  head  were  two  long,  slender, 
shell  ear-pins;  no.  28  had  two  well-made 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE  SKELETON  CLUTCHING  SHELL  GORGET  IN 

RIGHT  HAND.     MOUND    2.     HIWASSEE    ISLAND. 

NEAR  DAYTON.  TENNESSEE 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAI 


CHEROKEE   SKELETON    WITH    POTTERY  VESSEL   AND   SMALL 

CELT,    MOUND  2.  HIWASSEE  ISLAND.  NEAR  DAYTON 

TENNESSEE 


ARROW   WOUNDS 

125 

arrowpoints  and  a  large  potsherd;  no.  33 

the  stem  portion  of  a  stone  pipe;  no.  40,  a 

large  cylindrical  bead  made  from  a  fossil 

crinoid  stem;  no.  41,  part  of  a  bowl  made 

from  a  large  marine  shell,  the  rest  having 

been  plowed  away;  and  no.  43,  a  conch- 

shell  pendant  and  9  triangular  arrowpoints, 

some  of  them  finely  made.     Finally,  Burial 

54,  of  a  young  woman,  was  provided  with  a 

pottery  vessel  with  handles,  and  a  small 

stone    celt  or  chisel,  as  shown  in  pi.  XLI. 

• 

No  article  of  white  man's  manufacture  was 

found  with  any  of  these  burials. 

ARROW  WOUNDS 

War,  or  at  least  fatal  arrow  fights,  must 

have  been  quite  common  in  the  late  pre- 

historic period,  for  four  of  the  skeletons 

showed  arrow  wounds.     One  of  these  was 

Burial    24,    the    skeleton    exhibiting    two 

arrowpoints  in  the  thoracic  cavity,  shot  in 

from  the  front,  another  which  had  stopped 

against  the  ribs  after  penetrating  the  right 

shoulder-blade  from  the  back,  and  a  fourth 

shot  from  the  back  into  the  base  of  the 

neck.    Also  fatally  wounded  with  arrows 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

126 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

was  no.   35,  which  had   two  arrowpoints 

among  the  ribs,  another  in  the  pelvic  cavity. 

another  in  the  left  wrist,  and  still  another 

among  the  bones  of  the  right  hand.    The 

foot-bones  of  this  skeleton  were  somewhat 

charred,  as  was  one  knee;  yet  there  was  no 

charcoal,   burnt   earth,   nor   ashes  in   the 

grave;   hence  it   seems  possible   that   the 

victim  had  either  been  tortured  with  fire  or 

had  been  caught  in  a  burning  dwelling. 

• 

The  skeleton  showing  marks  of  scalping 

has   already   been  mentioned.    A   curious 

feature  of  the  arrow-wounded  skeletons  of 

both  the  earlier  and  the  later  periods  was 

that  all  the  arrowpoints  found  among  their 

bones  were  triangular,  differing  little  if  at 

all  from  those  hi  everyday  use  by  the  Chero- 

kee, and  often  buried  by  them  with  their 

dead  as  part  of  the  mortuary  deposit. 

TRIPLE  BURIAL 

An  unusual  grave  containing  three  skele- 

tons without  accompaniments,  lying  side 

by  side,  is  shown  in  pi.  XLH. 

INDIAN   NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


DOG  BURIAL,   MOUND  2,    HIWASSEE   ISLAND,   NEAR  DAYTON. 
TENNESSEE 


DOG  "BURIALS 

127 

DOG  BURIALS 

No  fewer  than  eight  dog  burials  were 

found  in  this  mound,  the  situation  of  seven 

of  which  are  shown  in  the  plan  (pi.  xxxm). 

Two  accompanied  human  burials,  the  rest 

lay  alone  at  varying  depths  and  in  differing 

positions,  for  the  greater  part  curled  up  or 

outstretched  on  the  side,  while  one  lay  on 

the  abdomen,  with  nose  downward.    From 

the  fact  that  some  were  in  very  good  con- 

dition, as  seen  in  pi.  XLHI,  while  others 

were  far  gone  toward  decay,  we  inferred 

that  in  the  case  of  the  dogs,  as  with  the 

human  burials,  interments  had  taken  place 

from   time  to   time   through   a  period  of 

many  years. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

128 

VIII.  OTHER   WORK   ON   HIWASSEE 

ISLAND 

MOUND  3 

A 

BOUT  187  feet  down-stream  .  from 
Mound  2,  measuring  from  center 

Sg§ 

to  center,  and  77  feet  in  from  the 

river-bank,   is   Mound  3,   a  cir- 

cular  structure  of  sand   and  musselshells 

about  50  ft.  in  diameter  and  now  only  3.5 

ft.  high,  due  probably  to  the  destructive 

effect  of  years  of  cultivation.    Small  test- 

holes  dug  in  this  showed  the  presence  of 

both  human  skeletons  and  dog-burials,  but, 

as  our  time  was  short,  we  thought  it  best  to 

spend  what  little  was  left  on  one  of  the 

high    mounds.        The    situation    of    this 

tumulus  is  shown  on  the  map  of  the  island 

(pi.  xxxi). 

MOUND  4 

. 

In  an  interval  of  the  other  work  a  small 

mound 

(no.  4),  situated  near  the  road  just 

east   of  one  of  the  Benham's  corn-cribs, 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND    5 

129 

was  examined.    It  was  only  about  30  ft.  in 

diameter  and  18  in.  high;  and  a  test-hole 

8  by  12  ft.  in  the  center  revealed  only  a 

solitary  but  handsomely  made  triangular 

arrowpoint,  and  a  small  pile  of  river  pebbles 

lying  on  the  original  surface  of  the  ground, 

but  no  trace  of  a  burial. 

MOUND  5 

This  is  one  of  the  high  mounds  of  conical 

form,    covered    with    timber    (pi.    XLIV), 

which  has  never  been  under  cultivation, 

and  is  situated  in  a  field  about    750    ft. 

westward    from    the    Benham    residence. 

Moore,25   calling   it   Mound   D,    gives   its 

dimensions  as  45  ft.  in  diameter  by  9.2  ft. 

high,    but   he    attempted    no    excavation. 

We   would   have   liked    to    explore   every 

inch  of  it,  but  as  our  time  was  so  short  we 

were  obliged  to  content  ourselves  with  a 

central  excavation   8   ft.   wide   by   16   ft. 

long,  the  longer  axis  running  almost  east 

and  west. 

STRUCTURE 

This    excavation,    besides    encountering 

18  burials,  revealed  some  interesting  facts 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

130 


a 


concerning  the  construc- 
tion and  therefore  the 
history  of  the  mound: 
first  of  all  that  the  orig- 
inal structure,  the  nu- 
cleus outlined  by  the 
lowest  shell  layer  in  the 
section  (fig.  13),  was  only 
about  2.6  ft.  high  and  15 
ft.  in  diameter,  yet  had 
contained  at  least  five 
burials  (pi.  XLV.  c),  the 
shell  layer  running  un- 
broken above  them;  that 
subsequently  the  mound 
had  been  raised  to  a  new 
level,  marked  by  a  layer 
of  shells,  and  then  an- 
other, finally  reaching 
the  height  of  a  little  more 
than  five  feet,  repre- 
sented by  the  highest  and 
thickest  shell  layer,  at 
which  elevation  it  must 
have  remained  for  some 
time,  since  five  inter- 


INDIAN    NOTES 


STRATIFICATION 


131 


ments  were  made  from  this  level  (pi.  XLV,  b) , 
cutting  through  the  shell  layers  beneath, 
as  shown  in  fig.  14.  Finally,  after  how  long 
a  period  no  one  can  say,  work  on  the  mound 
was  again  resumed,  and  it  was  raised  to  its 


FIG.  14. — Section  of  Mound  5,  showing  a  grave  dug  from 
the  surface  of  the  later  mound.  A,  mixed  mound  soil;  B, 
shell  layers;  c,  layer  of  charred  nuts;  D,  grave;  E,  charred 
layer  containing  skeleton;  F,  undisturbed  subsoil. 

present  level  and  at  least  seven  more  inter- 
ments made  (pi.  XLV,  a).  Whether  the 
last  four  feet  of  the  mound's  height  were 
completed  in  a  single  operation  would  be 
difficult  to  say;  we  know  at  least  that  if 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


132 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

done  at  intervals  no  shell  layers  nor  other 

indications  were  left  to  mark  the  stages  of 

the  work. 

Except   for   the  shell  layers,   the   entire 

mound  was  built  of  stiff,  yellowish-brown, 

clayey  soil,  which,  a  foot  or  two  beneath 

the  surface,  became  hard,  tough,  dry,  and 

exceedingly  difficult   to   dig.    No   excava- 

tion  was  observed   in   the  vicinity   from 

which  the  material  for  the  mound  could 

have  been  derived.    It  is  evident  that  the 

earth  was  either  scraped  up  from  the  sur- 

face in  many  places  or  that  the  excavation 

was  a  shallow  one  and  has  now  been  oblit- 

erated by  the  plow. 

BURIALS 

ORIGINAL  MOUND.  —  Considering  the  five 

burials  in  the  original  mound  forming  the 

nucleus  of  Mound   5,   we  found   four  of 

them,   as  nearly  as  could  be  determined 

from  the  position  of  the  fragments  of  bone 

remaining,  lying  in  flexed  positions,  three 

on  the  left  side  and  one  on  the  right,  and 

heading  in  different  directions,  as  shown  in 

pi.  XLV\.  c.    The  fifth  (no.  13),  the  onlv 

\ 

INDIAN    NOTES 

BURIALS 

one  to  penetrate  the  subsoil  beneath  the 
mound,  could  be  traced  only  by  the  dis- 
turbed earth  of  the  grave,  which  measured 
3  ft.  from  east  to  west,  and  2.5  ft.  in  width, 
with  a  depth  of  1.8  ft.  in  the  subsoil,  or  of 
11  ft.  below  the  surface  of  the  present 
mound.  In  the  bottom  of  this,  softer 
streaks  and  casts  in  the  hard  yellow  soil 
alone  remained  to  indicate  the  former  pres- 
ence of  bones. 

Only  one  artifact  was  found  with  any  of 
these  burials,  a  stemmed  arrowpoint  (pi. 
XLVIII,  j}  lying  near  the  right  shoulder  of 
no.  14.  But  this,  the  only  point  of  its  type 
found  by  us  with  a  mound  skeleton  during 
the  entire  expedition,  seemed  to  have  been 
shot  into  the  flesh  and  not  buried  with  the 
body  as  a  mortuary  offering. 

LATER  MOUND. — The  later  mound,  next 
to  the  latest  stage  of  Mound  5,  whose  sur- 
face is  represented  by  the  highest  shell 
layer  seen  in  fig.  13,  contained  only  five 
burials  in  the  part  we  explored,  three  of 
them  being  those  of  children,  all  in  flexed 
positions  and  heading  in  different  direc- 
tions, as  shown  in  pi.  XLV,  b. 


133 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


134 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


Three  of  these  burials,  nos.  8,  9,  and  18, 
had  mortuary  deposits.  About  the  neck 
of  no.  8,  a  child  of  about  five  years  of  age, 
were  11  flat  disc-beads  and  four  long  cylin- 
drical ones,  all  of  conch-shell,  while  from 
breast  to  knees  a  layer  of  about  2400 
Olivella  shell  beads  had  evidently  once 
covered  a  garment.  These  were  arranged 
longitudinally,  side  by  side,  as  shown  in 
fig.  47.  The  skeleton  was  covered  with  a 
layer  of  charcoal,  evidently  either  put  on 
hot  or  remaining  from  a  fire  built  on  the 
body;  for  some  of  the  more  projecting  bones 
were  slightly  scorched  and  a  few  of  the 
Olivette  shell  beads  calcined. 

This  burning  had  gone  even  further  in 
the  case  of  Burial  9,  a  section  of  whose 
grave  is  shown  in  fig.  14,  for  the  bones  of 
the  skeleton,  also  that  of  a  child  of  five  or 
six  years,  were  found  nearly  consumed  in  a 
layer  of  charcoal,  marked  e  in  the  section. 
This  grave  had  clearly  been  dug  from  the 
level  of  the  highest  shell  layer  down  through 
the  two  immediately  beneath  it  nearly  to 
the  shell  layer  marking  the  surface  of  the 
original  mound.  A  curious  feature  was  the 


INDIAN   NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE  SKELETON  IN  UNUSUAL  POSITION.  VILLAGE-SITE, 
HIWASSEE    ISLAND.    NEAR    DAYTON.   TENNESSEE 


BURIALS 

layer  of  charred  nuts  (c)  shown  in  the  sec- 
tion, but  the  only  artifact  consisted  of  the 
decayed  remains  of  a  bone  awl,  found 
beneath  the  skull. 

Another  child's  skeleton,  no.  18,  showed 
no  traces  of  burning,  but  with  it  were  found 
more  than  3000  Olivella  shell  beads,  which 
had  apparently  been  strung  and  wound 
many  times  about  the  neck,  but  not  sewed 
to  a  garment. 

Burial  12,  of  an  aged  woman,  although 
without  objects,  showed  traces,  in  the  form 
of  charcoal  and  reddened  earth,  of  a  fire 
which  had  charred  some  of  the  more  pro- 
jecting bones. 

LATEST  MOUND. — The  burials  found 
above  the  highest  shell  layer,  and  conse- 
quently four  feet  deep  or  less,  were  seven 
in  number,  but  there  was  also  another, 
no.  10,  which,  although  it  penetrated  the 
upper  shell  layer,  seemed  to  have  been  dug 
from  the  present  surface  or  near  it,  and  for 
that  reason  was  added  to  this  group,  mak- 
ing eight  in  all.  It  is  very  probable  that 
there  are  others  belonging  to  the  same 
period  in  the  edges  of  the  mound  not 


135 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


136 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


reached  by  our  excavations.  That  one  of 
these  may  be  a  stone  grave  is  indicated  by 
slabs  protruding  from  beneath  a  stump 
near  the  southern  edge  of  the  tumulus. 

Of  the  eight  burials,  seven  were  of  adults, 
the  other  of  an  infant;  there  was  no  uni- 
formity of  orientation,  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  plan  (pi.  XLV,  a) ;  but  four  skeletons  lay 
flexed  on  the  left  side,  two  on  the  right, 
one  lay  extended  on  the  back,  while  of 
another  only  the  skull  was  found.  Most 
were  in  bad  condition. 

The  richest  in  mortuary  deposits  was 
Burial  10,  the  one  which  had  penetrated 
the  highest  shell  layer,  for  it  had  a  necklace 
of  five  cylindrical  and  four  disc-beads  of 
conch-shell,  to  which  had  been  attached 
five  whole  but  small  conch-shells,  the  tips 
perforated  transversely  for  suspension  (pi. 
LXXXII,  g).  Also  about  the  neck  were  the 
remains  of  a  collar,  made  of  hundreds  of 
Olivelki  shells,  which  had  either  been  strung 
and  woven  together,  ten  rows  wide,  or  had 
been  sewed  to  a  piece  of  skin  or  of  fabric. 
This  skeleton,  too,  was  covered  with  burnt 


INDIAN    NOTES 


O  T  H  ER     MOUNDS 

137 

earth  and  charcoal,  and  some  of  the  bones 

were  slightly  charred. 

Most  of  the  burials  had  a  few  objects:  a 

fine  celt  being  found  near  the  hips  and  a 

good  triangular  arrowpoint  near  the  thighs 

of  no.  2;  no.  3  had  five  triangular  points; 

while  no.  5,  which  was  merely  a  skull  with- 

out even  a  lower  jaw,  had  15  Olwella  shell 

beads.     Part  of  a  well-made  stone  gorget 

lay  near  the  legs  of  the  infant,  no.  6,  and 

two    fine,    small,    triangular    arrowpoints 

accompanied  no.  7. 

OTHER  MOUNDS 

Mound  5,  just  described,  was  the  last  we 

excavated  or  tested.     The  other  mounds, 

the  locations  of  which  are  indicated  in  pi. 

xxxi,  were:  no.  6,  near  the  Hiwassee  land- 

ing,   a    low    shellmound    about    35    ft.  in 

diameter;   no.    7,   a  high,   conical  mound, 

called  Mound  F   by  Mr  Moore,  situated 

near  the  lower  end  of  the  island,  and  measur- 

ing 54  ft.  in  diameter  by  9  ft.  10  in.  high; 

Mound   8,   a  low   tumulus  near   the  last, 

excavated  and  almost  obliterated  by  Mr 

Barnes;  Mound  9,  called  Mound  E  by  Mr 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

138 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


Moore  and  explored  by  him,  as  before 
related,  diameter  30  ft.,  height  5  ft.  7  in.; 
Mound  10,  called  B  by  Moore,  elliptical  in 
form  and  10  ft.  3  in.  in  height,  the  base 
measuring  63  ft.  by  48  ft.,  dug  into  by  some- 
one, but  not  badly  damaged;  Mound  11,  a 
low  sheUmound  lying  a  short  distance 
southwest  of  the  last,  nearly  obliterated  by 
cultivation;  Mound  12,  a  shellmound,  60 
ft.  in  diameter  and  still  about  5  ft.  high, 
although  long  under  cultivation,  contain- 
ing burials  as  shown  by  plowed-out  frag- 
ments of  human  bones;  Mound  13,  a  low 
mound,  about  66  ft.  in  diameter,  composed 
largely  of  shells;  Mound  14,  similar  but 
slightly  smaller;  Mound  15,  near  the 
southeastern  corner  of  the  island,  a  high, 
conical  example,  called  Mound  C  by  Moore, 
measuring  8  ft.  2  in.  in  height,  with  a  diam- 
eter of  48  ft.,  showing  a  test  shaft  perhaps 
sunk  by  Emmert;  and  finally  the  great 
platform  mound,  no.  16,  at  the  northeast- 
ern corner  of  the  island,  22.5  ft.  in  height, 
called  Mound  A  by  Moore,  whose  descrip- 
tion of  it  has  previously  been  quoted  in 
Section  VI.  Someone  has  also  dug  a 


INDIAN    NOTES 


VILLAGE-SITES 

139 

small  central  shaft  in  this  tumulus,  but  the 

damage  is  slight. 

LARGE  VILLAGE-SITE 

Habitation   sites,    marked   by   decaying 

musselshells,  fire-broken  stones,  flint  chips, 

potsherds,  and  occasional  implements,  are 

of  frequent  occurrence  on  Hiwassee  island. 

We  have  indicated  the  situation  of  some  of 

the  larger  ones  by  dotted  areas  on  the  map. 

The  largest,  which   truly  deserves    to  be 

called  a  village-site,  is  situated  near    the 

northeastern  corner,  reaching  from  Mounds 

2  and  3  to  the  vicinity  of  the  great  platform 

mound  16,  and  including  the  cemetery  par- 

tially   explored    by    Messrs    Barnes    and 

Benham. 

The  little  digging  we  were  able  to  do  in 

this  village-site  was  more  in  the  nature  of  a 

test  than  anything  else,   for  we  realized 

that  there  was  no  time  for  extended  exca- 

vation.   We  discovered,  however,  a  village 

layer  averaging  2  ft.  to-  2.5  ft.  deep,  con- 

taining   many    animal    bones,    potsherds, 

occasional  scattered  implements,  and  frag- 

ments, preserved  by  burning,  of  the  clay 

AND    MONOGRAP'HS 

140 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

plastering  from  "wattle-and-daub"  houses. 

Sections  of  clay  floors  were  also   encoun- 

tered, and  there  is  little  doubt  that  careful 

and  extended  excavation  would  reveal  not 

only  many  specimens,  but  much  in  the  way 

of  information.     Most  of  the  deposit  may 

be  referred  to  the  Cherokee;  the  lower  por- 

tions,    although     exhibiting    a    somewhat 

simpler  culture,  are  possibly  also  from  the 

same  people.    However,  it  was  this  lower 

portion   that  yielded   a   number  of   frag- 

ments of  the  polychrome  ware  (pi.  LXII) 

before  mentioned,  which  does  not  seem  to 

appear  among  the  later  Cherokee  remains. 

As    before    mentioned,    there    was,    near 

Mound  2,  a  still  older  layer  which  we  attrib- 

uted to  the  "Round  Grave"  people. 

BURIALS 

Our  test-holes  encountered  nine  graves 

in  this  village-site,  many  of  them  contain- 

ing  the  remains  of  two  and   three  indi- 

viduals,   resembling    in    general    character 

the  latest  group  of  graves  in  Mound  2,  and 

nearly  all  belonging  apparently  to  the  late 

prehistoric    and    early    historic    period    of 

INDIAN    NOTES 

VILLAGE-SITES 

141 

Cherokee  occupancy.    A   typical   example 

is  shown  in  pi.  XLVI.     One  only  was  not 

flexed,  and  this  extended  burial,  although 

provided  with   a   cylindrical   stone    pestle 

(fig.  37),  had  also  many  glass  beads  which 

placed  it  within  the  historic  period.     Very 

few  of  the  others  were  accompanied  with 

artifacts,    one   having    merely  three  small 

and  very  sharp  bone  implements,  another  a 

peculiar  notched  stone,  and  two  of  them  a 

few  bone  beads  apiece.    An  unusual  fea- 

ture was  the  presence  in  one  of  the  graves 

of  the  remains  of  a  cedar  post  standing 

upright  in  one  corner. 

OTHER  HABITATION  SITES 

Besides  the  large  village-site,  there  was 

another  situated  not  far  from  the  south- 

eastern corner  of  the  island,  near  Mound 

15.    We  conducted   no   excavations  here, 

but  the  finding  of  many  stemmed  arrow- 

points  in  the  vicinity  led  us  to  suspect  that 

it  dates,  in  part  at  least,  from  the  pre- 

Cherokee  "Round  Grave"  period.     Other 

shell    deposits    marking    habitation    sites 

were  noted,  and  are  shown  on  the  map 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

142 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

(pi.  xxxi),  near  Mounds  4,  6,  13,  and  14, 

and   along   a    ridge  near  Mound    12,  the 

smaller  ones  being  only  30  or  40  ft.  in  diam- 

eter.   But  this  is  by  no  means  a  complete 

list;    we   noticed    but    failed  to  record  a 

number  of  others  scattered  about. 

CONCLUSIONS 

After   closing   our   altogether   too   brief 

investigations  on  Hiwassee  island,  examin- 

ing Lieut.  Dayton  Benham's  collection,  and 

reviewing  our  results,  incomplete  as  they 

were,  the  writer  felt  that  certain  conclu- 

sions were  justified,  the  first  of  which  was 

that  the  island  had  been  inhabited  at  an 

early  date  by  a  people  who  made  rather 

rude  earthen  vessels  with  pointed  bottoms, 

vessels  of  soapstone  and  stemmed  arrow- 

heads.   These  were  the  people  who  were 

probably    responsible    for    the    occasional 

grooved  axes  picked  up  on  the  surface  of  the 

island,  a  type  of  implement  rarely  if  ever 

found  associated  with  Cherokee  remains. 

Although  no  burials  of  this  people  were 

found  on  the  island,  the  artifacts  we  attrib- 

uted  to   them  were  identical  with   those 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CULTURE    SEQUENCE 


143 


found  associated  with  what  we  called  the 
"Round  Grave"  culture  near  Lenoir  City. 
While  no  other  name  can  be  given  them  at 
present,  there  is  evidence,  which  will  be 
discussed  later,  connecting  them  with  the 
eastern  Algonkian  group  of  tribes. 

These  first  settlers  were  succeeded  by  a 
second  group  who  used  no  soapstone  vessels, 
and  whose  arrowheads,  axes,  and  pottery 
were  different — a  people  whose  products, 
although  less  varied,  resembled  closely  for 
the  greater  part  those  of  the  Cherokee  who 
are  known  to  have  been  the  last  aboriginal 
dwellers  on  the  island. 

That  they  were  really  the  ancestors  of 
the  Cherokee  is  rendered  doubtful  by  the 
fact  that  their  pottery  is-  decidedly  simpler 
than  that  of  the  Cherokee,  except  in  the 
line  of  polychrome  ware,  which,  although 
occurring  frequently  in  deposits  of  this 
period,  is  seldom  if  ever  seen  in  the  later 
ones  we  know  to  have  been  of  Cherokee 
origin.  Moreover,  the  "second  people" 
possessed  a  custom  apparently  unknown  to 
their  Cherokee  successors — that  of  par- 
tially burning  the  bodies  of  some  of  their 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


144 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


dead  after  laying  them  in  the  graves,  and 
occasionally  walled  their  graves  with  stone. 

Whoever  they  may  have  been,  the  gap 
between  this  second  people  and  the  known 
Cherokee  is  bridged  to  a  certain  extent  by 
the  burials  of  the  "intermediate  period"  in 
Mound  2,  and  those  of  the  highest  level  in 
Mound  5. 

In  late  prehistoric  times  the  aboriginal 
population  seems  to  have  been  larger  than 
before,  for  the  majority  of  the  burials  and 
of  the  artifacts  thus  far  found  on  the  island 
seem  to  belong  to  this  and  to  the  following 
periods.  These  people,  who  were  undoubt- 
edly Cherokee,  used  the  celt  form  of  axe 
and  the  triangular  type  of  arrowpoint  exclu- 
sively; made  many  bone  implements;  used 
discoidal  stones,  large  and  small,  and  seem 
to  have  had  a  great  liking  for  ornaments 
made  of  marine  shells,  brought  in  by  inter- 
tribal trade;  while  the  more  or  less  globular 
form  of  pottery  vessel  with  handles  was  the 
most  popular,  and  sunfish,  bird,  and  frog 
effigy-vessels  were  frequently  seen.  In 
most  of  these  particulars  the  people  of  this 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CULTURE    SEQUENCE 


145 


period  resembled  their  immediate  predeces- 
sors, but  in  addition,  as  time  went  on, 
they  adopted  many  of  the  pottery  forms 
of  their  neighbors  to  the  southeast. 

The  coming  of  the  whites  is  marked  by 
the  presence  in  the  graves  of  such  articles 
as  glass  beads,  iron  knives,  bracelets  of 
copper  wire  and  ornaments  of  sheet-copper, 
along  with  the  kind  of  celts,  triangular 
arrowpoints,  shell  ornaments,  and  the  like, 
that  had  figured  in  mortuary  deposits  for 
many  years — in  fact,  since  our  so-called 
"second  people"  arrived.  This  period 
terminated  in  1818,  when  Hiwassee  island 
was  finally  abandoned  by  the  Cherokee 
chief  John  Jolly  and  his  followers. 

The  writer  has  no  proof  that  the  possibly 
Algonkian  "Round  Grave  people"  were 
the  first  to  inhabit  the  island,  but  can  say 
that  they  were  the  earliest  of  whom  traces 
were  found  during  our  explorations.  In 
the  same  way  the  statement  that  the  next 
inhabitants  were  possibly  Cherokee  and 
that  the  most  recent  were  certainly  of  that 
tribe,  does  not  mean  that  traces  of  other 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


146 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

cultures  may  not  appear  on  more  thorough 
investigation.    It  merely  means  that  such 
were  the  inferences  from  our  explorations, 
so  far  as  they  went. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

147 

t 

• 

IX.  EARLIEST  REMAINS 
THE  "ROUND  GRAVE  PEOPLE" 

TURNING  now  to  the  discussion  of 
the  cultures  of  this  part  of  the 

HH^)     upper  Tennessee  valley,  as  exem- 

plified   by    the    artifacts    found 
during    the    course    of    our    explorations, 
described  in  the  preceding  chapters,  we  will 
first  consider  the  products  of  the  earliest 
culture  whose  remains  we  encountered  — 
the  people  we  have  called  on  account  of 
the  distinctive  circular  form  of  their  graves, 
the  "Round  Grave  people,"  but  whose  real 
appellation  is  lost  in  the  mists  of  the  past. 

DISCOVERY 

We  first  suspected  the  existence  of  a  dis- 
tinctly   pre-Cherokee    culture    during    the 
excavation  of  the  Mainland  village-site  on 
the  Bussell  place  near  Lenoir  City,  when  we 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

148 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


observed  that  fragments  of  vessels  made  of 
steatite  (soapstone),  while  quite  abundant, 
were  found  only  near  the  bottom  of  the 
village  layer,  here  30  in.  deep  in  places,  and 
that  stemmed  arrowpoints  occurred  only 
at  about  the  same  level,  or  were  scattered 
about  the  fields  away  from  any  habitation 
sites,  the  points  in  the  upper  portion  of  the 
deposit  being  all  triangular.  The  suspicion 
was  strengthened  when  we  found,  on  the 
same  site,  three  circular  graves,  one  of  them 
containing  stemmed  arrowpoints,  and  all 
of  obviously  earlier  date  than  the  more 
abundant  rectangular  graves  which  we 
attributed  to  the  Cherokee,  and  in  which 
triangular  arrowpoints  only  were  found. 
Suspicion  did  not  become  certainty, 
however,  until  we  commenced  work  in  the 
Great  Midden  on  Bussell's  island,  where  we 
found,  in  the  lower  levels,  not  only  pieces 
of  stone  vessels  and  stemmed  arrowpoints, 
but  many  sherds  of  pottery  quite  distinct  in 
character  from  the  Cherokee  ware  above 
mentioned.  Nine  of  the  characteristic 
"round  graves"  like  those  found  before 
appeared  here  also,  and  some  of  them 


INDIAN    NOTES 


"ROUND    GRAVES" 

149 

yielded  fragments  of  stone  pots,  the  same 

class  of  arrowpoints,  and  identical  pottery, 

but  not  one  of  them  contained  anything 

characteristically  Cherokee. 

There  was  no  distinct  stratification  to 

guide  us,  but  the  contrast  between  these 

things   found   in   the   lower  levels  of  the 

Great  Midden,  and  the  known  Cherokee 

artifacts   from   the   upper   levels,    was  so 

marked  that  we  did  not  hesitate  to  ascribe 

them  to  a  different  culture. 

Later  we  found  an  undisturbed  village 

layer,    apparently    of    the    same    culture, 

underlying  Mound  2   at  Hiwassee  island, 

with  the  same  kind  of  fragments  of  soap- 

stone    pots     and     stemmed     arrowpoints, 

together  with  similar  pottery,  but  no  burials. 

STONE  VESSELS 

Very  characteristic  of  this  early  "Round 

Grave"    culture,    but    not    found    by    our 

expedition  among  the  remains  of  later  date, 

were    the    numerous    fragments   of  bowls 

or  pots  made  of  steatite.    While  none  ap- 

peared in  perfect  condition,  it  was  evident, 

from    a    study   of    them,    that    although 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

150 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


some  of  the  vessels  had  been  circular  in 
form,  (he  majority  were  more  or  less  oval, 


FIG.  IS. — Types  of  stone  vessels:  a,  Kentucky;  6,  Ten- 
nessee.    (Length  of  b,  10.6  in.) 

or  even  rectangular.  How  they  probably 
appeared  when  perfect  is  shown  in  fig.  15, 
which  represents  two  stone  vessels  now  in 


INDIAN    NOTES 


STONE   VESSELS 


151 


this  Museum,  a  being  from  Kentucky,    b 
from  central  Tennessee. 

In  material,  the  fragments  ranged  from 
a  very  fine-grained,  greenish-gray  steatite 
through  various  shades  of  gray  and  degrees 


FIG.  16.— Fragment  of  decorated  steatite  vessel,  "Round 
Grave"  culture,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island.  (Length, 
2.6  in.) 

of  coarseness  to  a  coarse  yellowish  variety 
of  almost  sandy  texture;  while  in  thickness 
they  varied  from  nearly  an  inch,  in  the  case 
of  one  fragment  of  what  seems  to  have  been 
the  bottom  of  a  vessel,  to  less  than  a  quarter 
of  an  inch,  the  thickness  of  a  rim  piece* 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


152 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


Many  of  the  fragments  show  plainly  on 
the  outside  the  marks  of  the  sandstone  rasp 
with  which  they  were  finished,  and  others 
distinct  strokes  of  a  narrow-bladed  shaping 
tool,  purposely  placed 
parallel  to  one  an- 
other to  produce  a 
kind  of  decorative 
effect;  the  inside  is 
usually  worn  smooth. 
Attempt  at  decoration 
is  also  found  in  the 
transverse  parallel 
lines  or  notches 
scratched  into  the 
tops  of  some  of  the 
rims,  as  seen  in  fig. 
16,  which  also  shows 
a  longitudinal  line 
intended  to  be  orna- 
mental. As  to  pur- 
pose, the  coating  of 
soot  on  many  of  the  fragments  leaves  little 
doubt  that  these  stone  vessels  were  used 
over  the  fire  for  cooking,  but  even  when 
broken  their  usefulness  was  not  alwavs 


FIG.  17.— Gorget  of  stea- 
tite, "Round  Grave"  cul- 
ture, Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island.  (Length,  2.2  in.) 


STONE   VESSELS 


ended,  for  gorgets  like  that  shown  in  tig. 
17,  and  other  articles  like  the  one,  perhaps 


FIG.  18.— Sinker  (?)  of  steatite,  "Round  Grave"  culture, 
Hiwassee  island.    (Length,  3.3  in.) 


a  sinker,  shown  in  fig.  18,  might  be  made 
of  the  pieces. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


153 


154 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

POTTERY 

Judging  from  the  potsherds  found  in  our 
excavations,  the  only  type  of  earthen  vessel 
used  by  the  "Round  Grave  people"  seems 
to   have   been   more   or   less    egg-shaped, 
with  pointed  bottom    (fig.   19),  of  a  form 

FIG.  19.  —  Type  of  pottery  vessel  used  by  the  "Round 
Grave  people,"  determined  from  fragments. 

commonly  found  in  the  Algonkian  districts 
of  the  Middle  Atlantic  slope.26    Examples 
of  the  ware  are  shown  in  pi.  XLVII. 
It  was  soon  noticed  that  most  of  the 
sherds  were  marked  with  parallel  corru- 
gated   indentations    quite    different    from 
anything  seen  in   the   Cherokee  deposits. 

INDIAN   NOTES 

POTTERY 

These  were  at  first  considered  a  species  of 
decoration  produced  by  pressing  a  cord- 
wrapped  stick  into  the  clay  while  still 
plastic,  but  later,  when  wax  impressions 
of  the  sherds  were  made,  it  was  seen  that 
the  marks  are  the  imprints  of  a  stiff  fabric 
consisting  of  a  warp  of  rushes  and  a  weft 
of  twisted  fiber  cords.  Holmes27  illustrates 
a  specimen  of  this  kind  from  a  piece  of 
pottery  found  in  Carter  county,  Tennessee, 
and  regards  the  warp  as  composed  of 
bundles  of  fiber;  but  we  have  one  specimen 
in  which  the  weft  has  worn  away,  revealing 
the  warp  to  consist  of  rushes  (fig.  20,  b). 
Moore28  found  identical  fabric  in  a  charred 
condition  with  burials  at  the  Bennett  place 
on  Tennessee  river  below  Chattanooga,  of 
which  he  says  in  one  instance,  "This  burial 
lay  in  part  at  least  on  a  kind  of  mat  made  of 
reeds  or  of  small  canes  placed  parallel  in 
contact  and  joined  together  with  cords 
crossing  at  right  angles."  The  writer  has 
examined  fragments  of  this,  now  on  exhibi- 
tion in  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia,  and  thinks  from  the  manner 
in  which  the  fabric  has  been  folded,  and 


155 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


156 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


FIG.  20.— Textiles  of  the  "Round  Grave   people"   as 
shown  by  imprints  on  their  pottery. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


TEXTILES 

the  appearance  of  the  broken  ends,  that 
the  warp  is  of  rushes,  which  are  fairly 
pliable,  rather  than  of  canes,  which  are 
much  stiffen  That  the  object  has  been  a 
sleeping  mat  or  rug,  rather  than  a  bag  or  a 
basket,  seemed  evident. 

The  character  of  the  fabric  is  shown  in 
fig.  20,  from  a  drawing  of  wax  impressions 
of  sherds  of  this  type.  Whether  the  vessels 
were  built  up  inside  of  bags  of  this  kind  of 
weaving,  or  whether  pieces  or  straps  of  the 
material  were  impressed  into  the  clay  to 
produce  a  decorative  surface,  can  not  be 
determined  until  larger  pieces  of  the  ware 
are  obtained  and  we  observe  whether  or 
not  the  imprints  are  continuous.  Some  of 
the  sherds  collected  certainly  indicate  that 
the  ware  was  made  by  the  usual  coiling 
process,  whether  in  a  bag  or  not.  One 
sherd  also  shows  an  attempt  at  decoration 
in  the  form  of  a  faint  zigzag  incised  line 
encircling  the  vessel  just  below  the  rim 
(fig.  19),  and  another,  a  band  of  parallel 
oblique  lines. 

The  color  of  the  pottery  is  merely  that  of 
the  burned  clay,  yellowish  to  brownish;  the 


157 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


158 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

texture  is  firm;  the  thickness  is  not  exces- 

sive, averaging  little  if  any  greater  than 

that  of  the  usual  Cherokee  ware;  tempering 

material    is    sometimes    sand    or    crushed 

stone,   but  more  often,   like   that  of   the 

"Over-hill"  Cherokee,  crushed  musselshell, 

which  in  some  cases  has  decomposed  and 

leached  away,  leaving  the  ware  porous. 

STONEWORK 

Most  abundant  of  the  products  in  stone 

of  the  "Round  Grave  people"  found  by  our 

expedition,  with  the  exception  of  the  frag- 

ments of  stone  vessels  already  described, 

are    the    arrowpoints,    of    which    typical 

examples  are  shown  in  pi.  XLVIII,  where  it 

will  be  noticed  that  all  illustrated  are  pro- 

vided with  stems  to  facilitate  attachment 

to   the  shaft  —  a  feature  which   Cherokee 

arrowpoints  lack.    Specimens   a,  f-j   were 

all  found  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  Great 

Midden  on  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island;   b 

came  from  the  old  village  layer  beneath 

Mound  2  on  Hiwassee  island;  c  from  a  pit 

extending  into  the  subsoil  from  this  same 

layer;  d  is  one  of  two  similar  points  found 

INDIAN    NOTES 

STONEWORK 


159 


in  a  round  grave  at  the  Mainland  village- 
site  near  Lenoir  City;  while  e  is  the  point, 
before  mentioned,  that  had  been  shot  into 
the  shoulder  of  a  person  buried  in  the  old- 
est part  or  nucleus  of  Mound  5  on  Hiwassee 
island.  There  is  nothing  peculiar  nor 
unusual  in  the  workmanship  of  these 
arrowpoints;  the  material  is  commonly  the 
grayish  flint  often  seen  in  this  region, 
although  e  has  a  pinkish  tinge,  and  j  is  of 
dark  quartzite,  and  several  points  of  white 
quartz  were  found. 

It  so  happened  that  we  found  no  axes  of 
any  kind  in  the  unmistakable  "Round 
Grave"  deposits,  but  the  writer  suspects 
that  the  grooved  axes  occasionally  seen  on 
the  surface  in  the  region  may  be  attributed 
to  these  people — certainly  he  has  never 
found  even  a  fragment  of  a  grooved  axe  in 
the  Cherokee  deposits  where  axes  of  the 
celt  type  are  frequent.  Pestles  of  the 
"bell"  type,  such  as  is  seen  in  pi.  LXXXVI,  a, 
are  also  sometimes  picked  up  in  this  dis- 
trict, but  whether  or  not  they  belong  to 
the  "Round  Grave"  culture  the  writer 
can  not  sav.  He  has  never  seen  them  in 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


160 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


the  Cherokee  deposits  either,  although 
cylindrical  pestles  are  sometimes  there 
found. 


FIG.  21. — Gorget  of  the  "Round  Grave"  culture,  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island.    (Length,  2.1  in.) 

That  the  "Round  Grave  people"  were 

skilful  in  the  manufacture  of  ornaments  of 

tone  is  evidenced  by  the  finding  of  two 


INDIAN    NOTES 


B  O  N  E  W  O  R  K 

161 

fine  fragmentary  gorgets  in  the  lower  part 

of  the  Great  Midden  on  Lenoir  or  BusselTs 

island.    One,    made    of    greenish    banded 

slate,  had  been  oval  in  form,  with  two  per- 

forations; the  other,  -of  the  unusual  shape 

shown  in  fig.  21,  seems  to  be  made  of  a 

very  fine-grained  sandstone,  and  is  brown- 

ish gray  in  color.    A  third  broken  gorget 

of  steatite,  and  not  so  well  made,  has  been 

already  mentioned  and  illustrated  (fig.  17). 

The    few  hammerstones,    net-sinkers,   and 

the  like,  unearthed  in  the  lower  part  of 

the  "Great  Midden,"  did  not  differ  appar- 

ently from  those  of  the  Cherokee  found 

above  them. 

WORK  ix  BOXE 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  "Round 

Grave"  bone  awls,  examples  of  which  are 

shown  in  fig.  22  :  they  are  merely  sharpened 

splinters    of    deer-bone,    indistinguishable 

from  the  poorer  products  of  the  Cherokee. 

Different  from  any  of  the  Cherokee  pro- 

ducts found  by  us,  however,  is  the  thin, 

curved,  bone  object  with  two  perforations 

near  one  edge,  shown  in  fig.  23,  possibly  a 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

162 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


"bracer"   to   protect   the  wrist  from   the 
snap  of  the  bow-string,  found  near  the  right 


FIG.  22.— Bone  awls  of  the  "Round  Grave"  _  culture, 
Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island.    (Length  of  a,  3.2  in.) 

lower  arm  of  a  "Round  Grave"  skeleton. 
The  necklace  of  perforated  animal  teeth 


INDIAN    NOTES 


PERFORATED    TEETH 


163 


found  with  a  skeleton  of  this  period  has 
already  been  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on 


FIG.  23. — Bracer  of  bone,  "Round  Grave"  culture,  Le- 
noir  or  Bussell's  island.     (Length,  3.7  in.) 

Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island;  these  in  the  main 
seem  to  be  the  canine  teeth  of  the  lynx,  and 
while  in  the  majority  of 
cases  the  perforation 
seems  to  have  been  ef- 
fected by  drilling  from 
one  or  both  sides  in  the 
usual  manner  (fig.  24,  a), 
in  some  cases  it  has  been 
done  by  scraping  or  FIG. 24.— Lynx-teeth, 

.  ,  perforated  for  suspen- 

groOVing     With     a     Sharp  sion:     a,    Drilled;    b, 

a-    .  r         nA  Scraped.  "Round 

flint,    as   Seen   111    fig.    24,  Grave"  culture,  Lenoir 

b.     Nothing  was  found  in  or  Bussell's  island. 

the  line  of  ornaments  made  of  marine  shell, 
nor  objects  of  native  copper,  to  indicate 
intertribal  trade. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


164 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

When  we  repeat  that  these  people  folded 

their   dead   into    an   almost   unbelievably 

small    compass,    with    the    knees    usually 

tight  against  the  chest  and  the  head  forced 

down  between   them,   and  crowded   them 

either  on   the  back  or  on   the  side  into 

circular,  well-like  pits  of  small  diameter, 

often  breaking  bones  in   the  process,  we 

have,    with    what    has     preceded  in  this 

chapter,    told    all   we   know,    objectively, 

about  the  "Round  Grave  people." 

DISTRIBUTION 

As  to  the  distribution  of  this  people  in 

Tennessee,    we    found    their    remains    at 

Hiwassee  island  near  Dayton,  and  at  the 

Lenoir  City  sites,  while  Holmes,  as  before 

noted,  reports  pottery  which  seems  to  be 

identical  with  their  distinctive  ware,  from 

Carter  county  in  the  eastern  extremity  of 

the    state.    The    curious  textile,   imprints 

of  which  are  seen  on  much  of  the  "Round 

Grave"  pottery,  was  not,  however,  used  only 

.by  them,  for,  as  before  noted,  charred  frag- 

ments of  it  were  found  by  Mr  Moore  at 

the  Bennett  place,  associated  with  an  en- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

DISTRIBUTION 


165 


tirely  different  series  of  artifacts — a  distinctly 
different  culture. 

Mr  Moore29  did  find,  however,  what 
seems  to  be  a  station  of  these  people  farther 
down  Tennessee  river,  on  Rodger's  island 
in  Lauderdale  county,  Alabama,  where 
soapstone  vessels  were  encountered,  associ- 
ated with  two-holed  gorgets  and  with  arrow- 
points  which,  although  not  described  in 
the  text,  proved,  when  examined  by  the 
writer  in  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
of  Philadelphia,  to  be  mainly  of  stemmed 
types. 

Also  discovered  by  Mr  Moore30  were 
tightly  folded  burials  in  circular  grave-pits 
of  small  diameter  on  the  Hampton  place 
below  Chattanooga,  but  many  of  the 
skeletons  he  found  were  placed  vertically 
instead  of  horizontally,  and  were  accom- 
panied with  glass  beads  and  articles  of  iron 
and  brass,  showing  contact  with  the  whites; 
while  almost  every  grave-pit  was  covered 
with  a  layer  of  burnt  clay,  not  directly  on 
the  skeleton  as  seen  elsewhere,  but  near  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  a  feature  not  observed 
in  any  round  grave  examined  by  us;  there- 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


166 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

fore,    although    Mr    Moore    found    some 

stemmed  points  with  burials  here,  the  con- 

nection between  the  makers  of  his  circular 

"grave-pits"    and    those    of    our    "round 

graves"  remains  doubtful. 

RELATIONSHIP 

Our  best  method  of  gaining  a  clue  to  the 

relationships  of  the  "Round  Grave  people" 

is   to   look   for   a  group   whose  products, 

taken  as  a  whole,  are  similar.    Where,  then, 

do  we  find  a  cultural  complex  comprising 

simple    egg-shaped    pottery    vessels    with 

pointed  bottoms,  abundant  soapstone  ves- 

sels,  arrowpoints   of   the  stemmed   types, 

well-made  gorgets,   and   bone   implements 

usually  of  simple  form?    The  nearest  area 

where  such  a  series  is  found  in  its  entirety, 

for   the  greater  part   unobscured   by   the 

presence  of  other  cultures,  is  the  Middle 

Atlantic  slope,  from  Virginia  to  the  eastern 

tip  of  Long  Island,  New  York,  and,  in  a 

slightly   modified  degree,   onward  up   the 

New  England  coast,  a  region  found  by  the 

first  Europeans  in  possession  of  a  group  of 

,     INDIAN    NOTES 

RELATIONSHIP 

167 

Algonkian   tribes,   who  were  undoubtedly 

the  makers  of  the  products  in  question. 

It  thus  seems  logical  to  state  that  out 

"Round  Grave  people"  were  either  Algon- 

dans  closely  related  to  those  of  the  Middle 

Atlantic  slope,  or  had  at  least  been  pro- 

oundly  influenced  by  them. 

SUCCESSORS   OF  THE   "ROUND  GRAVE 

PEOPLE" 

RESEMBLANCES  TO  CHEROKEE 

After  the  disappearance  of  the  "Round 

Grave  people,"  whoever  they  may  have 

3een,  came  another,  the  builders  of  most, 

at  least,  of  the  conical  mounds  along  the 

Tennessee  between  Lenoir  City  and  Hiwas- 

see  island.  .  They  buried  little  with  their 

dead,   unfortunately,   but  what   few   arti- 

facts we  found  resembled  for  the  greater 

part    those  of   the   Cherokee.    As   before 

stated,    they   seem,   like  the  Cherokee,  to 

have    employed    the    triangular    form    o 

arrowpoint  and  the  celt  type  of  axe  exclu- 

sively; and  also,  like  them,  to  have  usec 

many   ornaments   made   of   marine   shells 

obtained   by   intertribal   barter   from   the 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

168 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

Gulf  region  or  the  Atlantic  coast;  while 

their  forms  of  burial  were,  on  the  whole. 

similar.       Unfortunately,    however,    these 

characteristics  do  not  seem  to  have  been 

confined  to  the  Cherokee,  but  were  also  the 

property   of   other   peoples   living   farther 

• 

down  the  river.    The  limited  amount  of 

pottery  found,  whose  connections  with  this 

culture  can  be  established,   has,  with  one 

exception,   little   character,    and   while  it 

might  be   early   Cherokee,    it  also  might 

not  be. 

DIFFERENCES 

In  some  respects,  however,   the  people 

who  followed  the  "Round  Grave"  group 

seem   to   have   differed   from   the   known 

Cherokee:  for  instance,  in  the  partial  burn- 

ing of  some  bodies  after  laying  them  in  the 

grave,    noticed    at    the    Upper    Hampton 

'place  and  in  Mound  5  on  Hiwassee  island, 

while  the  embossed  native  copper  ornament 

discovered  with  a  skeleton  in  Mound  3  of 

the  Bussell  group   near  Lenoir   City,   an 

object    resembling    a    specimen    in    this 

Museum,   found  far  down   the  Tennessee 

INDIAN    NOTES 

MOUND-BUILDERS 

169 

river  in    Alabama,    finds    no  counterpart 

among  known  Cherokee  remains. 

Then  we  have  the  problem  of  the  poly- 

chrome pottery,   which,   although   it   was 

found  only  occasionally,  and  in  fragments, 

in    the   general    digging   of    the   mounds, 

appeared  quite  frequently  in  refuse  deposits 

later  than  those  of  the  "Round  Grave" 

period,  but  below  those  we  know  surely  to 

be  Cherokee. 

PROBABLE  SOLUTION 

Now,  Mr  Moore31  found  at  the  Bennett 

place  on   Tennessee  river  below   Chatta- 

nooga, a  cultural  complex  which  embraces 

all   the  non-Cherokee  features  mentioned 

above  —  the  burned  burials,  the  embossed 

copper    ornaments,    and    the    polychrome 

pottery,  combined  with  celt-axes,  triangular 

arrowpoints,  ornaments  of  imported  shells, 

and  positions  of  burial  resembling  those  of 

the  Cherokee. 

It  appears,  then,  that  our  mound-build- 

ing   Indians    who    followed    the    "Round 

Grave  people"  were  probably  the  same  as 

those  who  occupied  the  Bennett  Place  site, 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

170 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


and  that  these,  while  they  resembled  the 
known  Cherokee  in  some  respects,  differed 
from  them  in  others.  That  they  were  the 
ancestors  or  relatives  of  the  Cherokee  is 
possible,  but  their  use  of  embossed  copper 
ornaments  and  of  polychrome  pottery  sug- 
gests a  connection  with  a  culture  centering 
at  one  time  in  Cumberland  valley,  a  culture 
which  Mr  William  Edward  Myer,32  who  has 
devoted  considerable  study  to  the  subject, 
regards  as  Siouan.  Of  course  it  is  true  that 
the  polychrome  pottery  of  this  last  people 
is  somewhat  different  from  the  ware  found 
by  Mr  Moore  on  the  Bennett  place,  and  by 
our  expedition  farther  up  the  river;  and  it 
is  equally  true  that  the  embossed  copper, 
like  the  ornaments  of  Gulf  shells,  might 
have  come  in  by  trade;  hence  perhaps  it  is 
not  safe  to  lay  too  much  emphasis  on  these 
features  in  attempting  to  determine  relation- 
ships. 

So  far  as  the  very  simple  pottery  of  South- 
ern character  found  in  the  general  digging 
of  the  addition  to  Mound  2  is  concerned, 
these  sherds  may  be  relics  of  the  traditional 
Creek  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the 


INDIAN    NOTES 


MOUND-BUILDERS 

171 

Hiwassee,  mentioned  by  Haywood,  and 
may  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  of  the 
three  other  cultures  under  discussion. 

MERGING  OF  CULTURES 

Whether  or  not  the  mound-building 
Indians  who  followed  the  "Round  Grave 

people"  were  in  reality  the  ancestors  of 
the  Cherokee,  it  is  true  that  on  long- 
inhabited  sites  like  Hiwassee  island  their 

remains  merge  imperceptibly  into  those  of 
the  precolonial  and  colonial  Indians  whom 
we  know  to  have  been  Cherokee. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

172 

X.  REMAINS    OF    THE    CHEROKEE: 
POTTERY       , 

IDENTIFICATION 

BEFORE  proceeding  to   a  descrip- 
tion  of  the  artifacts  which   we 

Upjji^jj      attribute  to  the  Cherokee  culture, 

let  us  look  a  little  more  closely 
than   before   at    our   justification    for    so 
identifying  them.    In  the  first  place,  we 
know  that  when  the  whites  first  began  to 
visit    the    upper    Tennessee    valley    they 
found  it  occupied  exclusively  by  the  Chero- 
kee,33 and  also  that  this  people  remained 
there  through  the  colonial  period,  in  spite 
of  frequent  conflicts,  until  finally  displaced 
by  the  newcomers  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century,34  when  a  large  part  of  the  tribe  was 
removed  westward.    We  even  know  that, 
as  before  recorded,  Hiwassee  island  itself 
was  the  home  of  the  Cherokee  chief  John 

INDIAN    NOTES 

CHEROKEE 

173 

Jolly,  who  abandoned  it  in  1818.    In  view 

of  these  facts,  when  we  find  Indian  burials 

of  a  given  type,  accompanied  with  trad- 

ers'   products    showing   contact   with    the 

whites,  common  in  this  region,  we  can  be 

reasonably  certain  that  this  type  may  be 

called  Cherokee.     Moreover,  these  known 

Cherokee  graves  containing  articles  of  trade 

also    frequently    yield    native     artifacts, 

which  in  this  manner  can  be  identified  as 

Cherokee.     Thus  prepared,  we  can  go  to 

graves  of  an  earlier  period,  before  the  com- 

ing of  the  whites,  and  when  we  find  them 

of  known  Cherokee  type  and  containing 

known  Cherokee  artifacts  we  can  identify 

them  too  as  Cherokee,  and  in  this  manner 

work  back  from  the  historic  to  the  pre- 

historic.    Proceeding    by    these    methods, 

the  writer  feels  that  the  artifacts  we  are 

about  to   describe   may    be    considered  as 

typical  of  the  Tennessee  Valley  settlements 

of  the  Cherokee,  unless  otherwise  noted. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  POTTERY 

On   the  whole,   particularly    during  the 

earlier  part  of  their  stay  in  eastern  Tennes- 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

174 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


see,  the  pottery  of  the  Cherokee  may  be 
said  to  belong  to  the  Middle  Mississippi 
group  as  denned  by  Holmes,35  which  extends 
approximately  from  eastern  Arkansas  and 
Missouri  eastward  to  the  Appalachian 
ranges,  including  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  parts  of  the  states  adjacent  on  the 
north  and  south. 

While  many  forms  are  widely  distributed 
throughout  the  whole  area,  and  must  have 
been  the  common  property  of  many  sepa- 
rate tribes,  there  are  certain  types  of  ves- 
sels and  features  of  decoration  that  are 
much  more  restricted,  and  these,  as  Holmes 
says,  enable  us  to  recognize  a  number  of 
subgroups  which  may  have  a  tribal  or  cul- 
tural significance.  One  of  these,  which 
embraces  some  forms  reminiscent  of  the 
Iroquois  patterns,  occupies  the  territory 
from  eastern  Tennessee  northward  across 
Kentucky  into  Ohio;  and  with  this  sub- 
group may  be  classified  the  ware  of  the 
Cherokee  in  the  earlier  part  of  their  occu- 
pancy of  eastern  Tennessee.  As  time  went 
on,  however,  we  find  more  and  more  influ- 
ence creeping  in  from  the  southeast — 


INDIAN    NOTES 


POTTERY 

175 

stamped   ware,    and    the   cazuela   type   of 

vessel,36  both  characteristic  of  the  Southern 

Appalachian  group,  become  numerous,  asso- 

ciated with  the  old  types  which  were  still 

retained.    In  some,  at  least,  of  the  Chero- 

kee towns  east  of  the  mountains,  Southern 

Appalachian   forms   seem,  finally,  in   early 

Colonial  days,  to  have  dominated,  to  the 

partial  exclusion  of  the  old  types,37  and  the 

ware  made  recently  by   the  Cherokee  is 

quite  distinctly  Southern  Appalachian  for 

the  greater  part.    Most  of  the  bottoms  of 

the  larger  modern  vessels  are  flat  instead 

of  rounded,  as  in  the  old  forms,  but  this 

change   was   brought    about    to    facilitate 

standing    them    on    modern    shelves    and 

tables. 

GENERAL  CHARACTERISTICS 

In  color,  Cherokee  ware  is  usually  yellow- 

ish or  brownish,  sometimes  with  a  tinge  of 

red,  but  these  are  merely  the  natural  tints 

of  the  fired  clay  without  artificial  coloring. 

Occasionally  the  inner  surface  still  retains, 

however,  a  black  tinge  due  to  the  process 

to  be  described  later,  by  which  the  vessels 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

176 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


were  rendered  impervious,  and  the  exterior 
is  sometimes  coated  with  soot  from  the 
ancient  camp-fires. 

The  surface  of  the  ware,  even  when 
not  purposely  roughened,  is  seldom  very 
smooth,  and  the  texture  is  usually  quite 
coarse,  owing  to  a  heavy  admixture  of 
pounded  musselshells  used  in  tempering; 
but  a  few  fragments  of  especially  well  made 
bowls,  of  fine  texture  and  with  a  smooth 
polished  surface  on  both  sides,  show  that  a 
better  class  of  ware  was  known.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  here  that  the  Cherokee 
ware  made  at  the  Nacoochee  mound  in 
northern  Georgia  was  not  as  a  rule  tem- 
pered with  shells,  but  with  sand  or  crushed 
stone;  and  that  these  last  are  the  only 
tempering  materials  remembered  by  the 
modern  Cherokee  potters  met  by  the 
writer  in  North  Carolina. 

In  thickness,  the  Cherokee  pottery  found 
on  Tennessee  river  by  our  expedition  varies 
from  one-tenth  to  seven-tenths  of  an  inch, 
with  an  average  of  about  three-tenths. 
Besides  the  decoration  produced  by  free- 
hand drawing  with  a  pointed  instrument  on 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CHARACTERISTICS 

177 

the  clay  while  still  soft,  and  by  stamping 

it  with  a  carved  paddle,   both  surviving 

until  lately  among  the  modern  Cherokee, 

the  ancient  sherds  show  patterns  formed  by 

the  imprints  of  the  end  of  some  kind  of 

hollow  cylinder,  such  as  a  quill  or  a  piece 

of  cane;  dots  produced  by  pressing  a  solid 

point   into    the   clay;    and    a    body-finish 

effected  by  strokes  of  a  paddle  wrapped 

with  cord,  by  brushing  with  a  bundle  of 

stiff  grass,  or,  in  the  case   of    the   coarse 

basins  or  vats  of   the  salt-pan   type,   by 

constructing  the  vessel  in  a  hole  lined  with 

pieces  of  native  fabric  which  left  its  imprint 

on  the  finished  product. 

POT-LIKE  FORMS 

Commonest  of  all  Cherokee  pot  types, 

insofar  as  these  are  preserved  by  the  frag- 

ments found  in  the  refuse  heaps  in  eastern 

Tennessee,   is   the  large  cooking-vessel  of 

oval  outline,  with  a  vertical  or  insloping 

neck  of  considerably  smaller  diameter  than 

the  body,   and  from  two  to  four  broad, 

flat  handles  connecting  the  edge  of  the  rim 

with  the  bulge  of  the  body  below,  as  seen 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

178 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


in  pi."  XLIX,  a,  d,  and  in  fig.  25,  a,  sur- 
mounted by  a  decorative  point.  The  plain, 
Bat  handle  was  the  typical  form,  but  some- 


FIG.  25.— Handles  of  pottery  vessels:  a,'  Flat,  from  Hi 
wassee  island;  b,  Round,  from  Mainland  village-site 
(Length  of  a,  2.4  in.) 


INDIAN    NOTES 


POT-LIKE    FORMS 


179 


times  handles  of  circular  section  (fig.  25,  b} 
were  used,  and  occasionally  handles  were 
replaced  by  projections  or  lugs,  as  seen  in 
pi.  L,  representing  a  large  vessel,  lacking 
only  the  bottom,  found  at  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island,  the  complete  restoration  of 
which  appears  in  pi.  XLIX,  g.  These  pro- 
jections were  sometimes  rounded,  as  in  this 
specimen,  sometimes  pointed,  and  some- 
times bifurcated  or  notched;  and  it  was 
noticed  that  vessels  with  this  kind  of  lugs 
were  much  more  abundant  at  the  Lenoir 
City  sites  than  on  Hiwassee  island.  All  or 
most  of  these  types  can  be  traced  across 
the  mountains  at  least  as  far  as  the  Nacoo- 
chee  mound  in  northeastern  Georgia, 
explored  for  the  Museum  of  the  American 
Indian,  Heye  Foundation,  by  Messrs 
Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,33  a  mound  yield1 
ing  specimens  which  for  the  greater  part 
may  be  attributed  to  the  Cherokee. 

Other  types  of  vessels  besides  these  large 
pots  are  sometimes  provided  with  similar 
projections  or  lugs,  which  in  some  cases  are 
almost  knob-like. 

When  decorated  at  all,  these  large  vessels, 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


180 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


which  sometimes  measure  15  in.  or  more  in 
height,  are  usually  encircled  at  the  neck  by 
the  widely  distributed  incised  design  com- 
posed of  a  series  of  triangles,  each  consisting 
of  parallel  lines  arranged  as  shown  in  pi. 
XLIX,  a,  and  LI,  a,  b;  while  not  so  common, 
but  equally  characteristic,  is  the  band  of 
adjoining  quadrangles  formed  by  inter- 
locking zigzag  lines  shown  in  pi.  XLDC,  d, 
and  on  the  small  vessel  in  pi.  LII.  The 
bodies  of  such  vessels,  like  those  of  the 
smaller  ones  of  similar  form  next  to  be 
described,  have  in  some  cases  been  given  a 
roughened  decorative  surface,  as  seen  in 
pi.  L,  by  repeated  strokes  of  a  paddle 
wrapped  with  cord,  applied  while  the  clay 
was  still  plastic.  Vessels  of  similar  form  and 
design  are  of  common  occurrence  in  eastern 
Kentucky  and  southern  Ohio.?9 

Related  to  these  large  oval  vessels  in 
general  characteristics  are  numerous  smaller 
ones,  which  differ  from  those  just  described 
in  having  a  flattened  spheroidal  instead  of 
an  ovoid  body — a  type  found  throughout 
the  Middle  Mississippi  Valley  district, 
before  mentioned.  Many  are  plain,  but 


INDIAN    NOTES 


oc  Q  u 


DECORATION 


181 


pi.  LIT  shows  a  decorated  example,  a  mor- 
tuary offering  from  Mound  1  on  Hiwassee 
island;  while  pi.  LIII  illustrates  a  type  with 
decorative  projections  on  the  body,  found 
with  a  burial  on  uio  Mainland  village-site 
near  Lenoir  City.  That  these  projections, 
with  the  curved  lines  above  them,  may  con- 
stitute a  conventionalized  representation  of 
an  owl's  head,  may  be  suspected  from  the 
fact  that  another  one,  similar,  but  surely 
an  owl's  head  effigy,  was  foifhd  in  a  grave 
on  Hiwassee  island;  but  this,  unfortunately, 
was  so  badly  disintegrated  that  it  could  not 
be  restored. 

A  related  form  with  notched  projecting 
rim  which  resembles  the  western  Iroquois 
styles,  and  which  the  writer  regards  as  a 
connecting  link  between  the  pottery  of  the 
Cherokee  and  that  of  their  linguistic  rela- 
tives, the  Iroquois  proper  of  the  north,  is 
shown  in  pi.  Liv,  which,  except  for  the 
heavy  shell  tempering,  would  not  seem  out 
of  place  if  found  in  the  old  Seneca  territory 
of  western  New  York.  Variations  of  the 
notched  rim  are  shown  in  pi.  LV,  d-f,  and 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


182 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


other  rim  types  suggesting  Iroquois  styles 
are  represented  in  a-c  of  the  same  plate. 


FIG.  26. — Effigies  of  the  human  face  used  as  rim  decora- 
tion: «,  Hiwassee  island;  b,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island. 
(Length  of  b,  2.1  in.) 


Such  notched  rims  are  also  frequent  on 
Cherokee  sites  east  of  the  mountains. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


POTTERY  VESSEL  SUGGESTING  IROQUOIAN  FORMS.  LENOIR 

OR  BUSSELL'S  ISLAND.  LENOIR  CITY.  TENNESSEE 

Diameter  of  mouth,  5.1  in. 


BOWLS 

183 

Suggesting  Iroquois  usage  in  principle,  if 
not  in  detail,  is  the  use  of  the  human  face 
as  a  rim  decoration  for  pottery,  seen  in 
tig.  26,  which  in  just  this  form  seems  to  be  a 
characteristic  Cherokee  phenomenon,  found 
at  Hiwassee  island  and  the  Lenoir  City  sites, 
and  also  across  the  mountains  at  the  Nacoo- 
chee  mound  in  Georgia;40  but  not  outside 
the  Cherokee  domain,  so  far  as  the  writer 
knows. 
Another   pot   form,   distinguished   by   a 
very  widely  flaring  rim  (pi.  XLIX,  c),  and 
found  by  us  only  at  Hiwassee  island,  is  also 
reported  from  the  Nacoochee  mound41  in 
somewhat   modified   form;   while   the   pot 
seen  in  pi.  LVI,  found  in  a  child's  grave  at 
Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island,  is  an  eccentric 
type  representing  a  bowl  resting  on  a  pot, 
and  seems  quite  widely  distributed  through 

the  Middle  Mississippi  Valley  region. 
BOWLS 

The  three  most  abundant  types  of  Chero- 
kee bowls  are  seen  in  b,  e,  f,  of  pi.  XLDC,  of 
which  e  is  typical  and  widely  distributed 
in  the  Middle  Mississippi  group,  while  b 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

184 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


and  /,  variants  of  a  type  of  bowl  called 
cazuela  by  the  writer  in  a  previous  paper,42 
are  more  characteristic  of  the  Southern 
Appalachian  group  in  the  United  States, 
and  of  the  Taino  culture  of  the  West  Indies. 
The  type  shown  in  b  is  usually  plain;  e 


FIG.  27. — Pottery  bowl,  cazuela  type,  found  at  Lenoir 
island  by  Emmert.     (After  MacCurdy) 


seldom  has  more  than  the  encircling  notched 
ridge,  as  shown;  but  /,  strange  to  say, 
seems  to  have  been  especially  singled  out 
for  decoration.  We  found  many  fragments 
of  this  type  of  bowl  (pi.  Lvn,  a-d),  but  no 
complete  examples,  in  which  we  were  not 
so  fortunate  as  Mr  Emmert,  who  unearthed 


INDIAN    NOTES 


BOWLS 

the  cazuela  shown  in  fig.  27  on  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island,  a  specimen  now  in  the 
Wesleyan  University  collection,  and  figured 
by  MacCurdy.43  In  form,  and  especially 
in  decoration,  this  specimen  seems  to  be 
typical  of  the  old  Cherokee  domain,  almost 
identical  examples  having  been  found  in 
Kentucky  and  at  the  Nacoochee  mound  in 
Georgia  (now  in  this  Museum),  and  by  Mr 
Moore  on  Tennessee  river  in  Alabama,  not 
far  from  the  Tennessee  border.44  Bowls,  as 
a  rule,  seem  to  have  been  12  in.  or  less  in 
diameter;  but  fragments  of  one,  like  that 
shown  in  pi.  XLIX,  e,  were  found,  that  had 
been  at  least  twice  as  large,  and  sherds  of 
very  coarse,  heavy,  fabric-marked  "salt- 
pan" ware  (pi.  LI,  d,  /)  sometimes  appeared 
— pieces  of  very  large  vessels  whose  shape 
had  apparently  ranged  from  the  true  bow] 
(pi.  XLIX,  e)  to  the  typical  salt-pan  or 
evaporating  vat  for  salt  making  (fig.  28). 
The  textile  markings  on  these  sherds  will 
be  considered  later. 

The  use  of  the  carved  paddle  in  decorat- 
ing pottery,45  applied  mostly  to  bowls  of 
the  cazuela  type  (pi.  XLIX,  b,  /),  but  some- 


185 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


186 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

times  to  pots  like  c  and  even  g  of  the  same 
plate,  does  not  seem  to  have  been  as  popu- 
lar at  the  settlements  of  the  Cherokee  on 
Tennessee  river  as  it  became  among  these 
people  east  of  the  mountains;  yet  numer- 
ous examples  were  unearthed,  such  as  the 

f£^^                                       ~~~^> 

d~_i7 

FIG.  28.  —  Restoration  of  pottery  "salt-pan." 

sherd  shown  in  pi.  LI,  c,  and  pi.  LVII,  e, 
which  latter  form  has  been  found  by  the 
writer  as  far  north  as  prehistoric  Iroquois 
sites  in  New  York  state. 

BOTTLES 

One  type  of  pottery  vessel—  the  earthen 
bottle  —  which  is  very  characteristic  of  the 
Middle  Mississippi  group  and  of  the  Caddo 
culture    adjoining    on    the    southwest,    is 
exceedingly   rare   on   our   Cherokee   sites, 
being  represented  only  by  one  perfect  speci- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

BOTTLE  OF   EARTHENWARE.   LENOIR  OR   BUSSELL'S   ISLAND. 

LENOIR  CITY.  TENNESSEE 

Height,  5.5  in. 


EFFIGY   VESSELS 

187 

men  of  reddish  ware  from  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 

island  (pi.  LVIII),  found  in  a  child's  grave, 

and  by  a  few  fragments,  lighter  in  color,  from 

this  and  Hiwassee  island. 

EFFIGY  VESSELS 

Equally  typical  of  the  Middle  Mississippi 

group,  as  a  whole,  are  the  sunfish,  frog, 

and  bird  effigy  vessels  which  seem  to  have 

found  considerable  favor  with  the  Chero- 

kee, for  we  obtained  a  number  of  perfect 

or  nearly  perfect  examples  from  graves  — 

a  frog  (pi.  LIX)  at  the  Mainland  village-site, 

a  bird  (pi.  LX,  a)  on  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 

island,  and  a  fish  (pi.  LXI)  in  Mound  1  at 

Hiwassee  island,  with  scattered  fragments 

in  all  three  places. 

As  may  be  seen  from  pi.  LIX,  the  frog  is 

an  excellent  representative  of  its  type,  the 

head  with  its  bulging  eyes  and  even  its 

nostrils  being  modeled  on  one  side  of  the 

vessel  to  the  left;  a  point  representing  the 

base  of  the  spine  on  the  opposite  side;  and 

the  legs,   represented  by  ridges,   between 

them;  while  the  rim  of  the  vessel  is  encircled 

by   a   notched   ridge.     The  bird   is   much 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

188 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


cruder  (pi.  LX,  a),  and  the  tail  is  missing, 
but  the  head  and  wings  are  plainly  indi- 
cated. A  good  bird-head  from  a  similar 
vessel  is  shown  in  fig.  29,  while  pi.  LX,  b, 
represents  a  crude  form  from  Lenoir  island 
which  may  have  been  based  on  the  bird 


FIG.  29. — Bird-head  effigy  trotn  pottery  vessel,  Hiwassee 
island.    (Length,  2  in.) 

type.  The  fish  (pi.  LXI)  is  well  executed, 
and  shows  plainly  the  head,  eyes,  tail, 
and  fins. 

All  these  forms  have  a  wide  distribution, 
as  above  noted;  and  fragments  of  them  ap- 
pear, moreover,  on  Cherokee  sites  east  of  the 
mountains,  for  example,  among  the  sherds, 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


POTTERY    BOWLS 

a,  Bird  effigy  (diameter,  4.2  in.);  b,  With  lugs  (diameter,  5  in.).     Lenoir  or 
BusselTs  island,  Lenoir  City,  Tennessee 


POLYCHROME    WARE 


189 


now  in  this  Museum,  found  at  the  before- 
mentioned  Nacoochee  mound,  although 
plainly  not  so  common  there. 

POLYCHROME  WARE 

Mr  Moore  seems  to  have  been  the  first 
to  call  attention  to  the  existence,  on  upper 


FIG.  30. — Vessel  of  polychrome  ware,  collected  by  C.  B. 
Moore  near  Chattanooga.     (After  Moore) 


Tennessee  river,  of  a  peculiar  variety  of 
pottery  characterized  by  striking  angular 
patterns  in  red  painted  on  a  ground  of 
light-yellow.  Of  the  first  vessel  of  this 
type  found  (fig.  30),  which  lay  at  the  head 
of  a  child's  skeleton  in  a  stone  grave  in  a 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


190 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

mound  on  the  Bennett  place  below  Chat- 

tanooga, he  says:48 

"This  bowl     .     .     .     is  of  special  interest  in 

that  it  has  had  a  striking  design  painted  in  red 

on  a  background  of  yellow  slip,  the  nature  of 

the    design   differing   entirely   from    anything 

found  or  heard  of  by  us  along  Tennessee  river, 

except  between  the  Bennett  Place  and  Citico 

creek,  about  thirty  miles  farther  up,  where  frag- 

ments of  vessels  of  this  kind  were  found,  as  was 

also  the  case  at  the  White  Place,  an  intermedi- 

ate  point.     We  have   been    unable  to    learn, 

though  the  foremost  authorities  have  been  con- 

sulted, that  designs  of  the  kind  on  this  vessel 

and  on  the  other  bowl  from  this  mound  have 

been  discovered  elsewhere  in  the  State  of  Ten- 

nessee.    Evidently  vessels  of  this  kind  belonged 

to  a  culture  local  and  restricted  in  area." 

We  found  some  sherds  of  this  kind  at  the 

Mainland  village-site,  where  one  fragment 

had  been  painted  solid  red,   and   typical 

specimens   on   Lenoir   or   Bussell's   island 

near  Lenoir  City,  which  extends  the  dis- 

tribution of  the  ware  up  the  river  to  the 

mouth   of   the  Little  Tennessee.     Several 

dozen  pieces  of  it  were  also  collected  on 

Hiwassee   island,    examples   of  which   are 

shown   in    pi.    LXII,    fragments   of   vessels 

which,  when  perfect,  probably  had  resem- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


POTSHERDS.      PAINTED      DECORATION,      HIWASSEE      ISLAND. 

NEAR   DAYTON.   TENNESSEE 

Length  of  a,  2.7  in. 


POLYCHROME    WARE 


191 


bled  Moore's  bowl  seen  in  fig.  30.  We  were 
also  fortunate  enough  to  find  examples  of 
similar  painting  in  black  instead  of  red,  an 
example  of  which  appears  in  fig.  31,  a, 
which  shows  a  fragment  of  a  bowl  whose 


FIG.  31. — a,  Fragment  of  po'.ychrome  vessel,  Hiwassee  is- 
land; b,  Restoration  of  same.     (Length  of  a,  3.3  in.) 

probable  form,  when  perfect,  is  seen  in 
fig.  31,  b.  With  respect  to  the  distribution 
of  the  ware,  it  is  interesting  to  note  at  this 
point  that  Mr  Harlan  I.  Smith  found  a 
piece  somewhat  similar  at  May's  Lick, 
Kentucky,47  and  that  this  is  apparently  the 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


192 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

most  distant  place  from  which  such  pottery 

has  been  reported. 

The  probability  that  this  ware  is  not  of 

Cherokee  origin,  but  is  possibly  of  local 

development,  near  Chattanooga,  of  a  cul- 

ture resembling  that  of  Cumberland  valley, 

has  been  mentioned,  and  this  theory  finds 

support  in  the  fact  that  the  polychrome 

sherds  are  different   in   texture  from   the 

usual  Cherokee  ware,  being  much  harder 

and  more  compact,  while  the  shells  used 

for  tempering  are  ground  much  finer  and 

the  color  is  lighter,  as  a  rule,  in  all  of  which 

they  resemble  the  best  Cumberland  Valley 

products.    The  forms  of  the  vessels  made 

of  this  ware  (figs.  30,  31,  b)  also  differ  from 

those  of  the  Cherokee;  so  our  final  decision 

was  that  the  presence  of  these  sherds  on 

Cherokee  sites  is  due  either  to  early  visits 

to   these  places  by  their  makers,  whoever 

they  may  have  been,  or  to  trade  between 

them  and  the  first  Cherokee  settlers. 

USES  OF  POTTERY 

That  the  pottery  vessels  of  the  ordinary 

types  were  frequently  used  for  cooking  is 

INDIAN    NOTES 

USES    OF    POTTERY 


193 


indicated  by  the  sooty  condition  of  the 
outer  surface  of  many  fragments,  and  that 
the  smaller  forms,  especially  the  bowls, 
were  often  employed  in  serving  the  food 
does  not  require  specific  proof,  but  follows 


FIG.  32. — Small  pottery  vessel,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island.     (Height,  2.2  in.) 


as  a  matter  of  course.  When  the  writer 
visited  the  Cherokee  still  in  North  Carolina, 
he  found  tiny  vessels  made  for  the  children 
to  use  as  toys,  which  furnishes  an  explana- 
tion for  such  small  vessels  as  that  shown  in 
fig.  32,  found  with  a  burial  on  Lenoir  or 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


194 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


Russell's  island.  This,  however,  has  holes 
drilled  near  the  rim  for  suspension,  and 
may  have  been  employed  in  preparing 
medicine.  The  bottle  forms  were,  of 
course,  intended  as  receptacles  for  liquids. 


FIG.   33.— Modeling  tool  or  trowel  of  earthenware,  re- 
stored, Hiwassee  island.    (Length,  2.7  in.) 


Pipes  were  also  often  made  of  earthen- 
ware (pi.  LXXXIV,  b),  as  were  modelers  or 
trowels  of  the  type  shown  in  fig.  33,  of 
which  we  found  only  fragments;  while  sec- 
ondary uses  of  pottery  included  the  making 
of  pot-covers  from  large  sherds  chipped 


INDIAN    NOTES 


MANUFACTURE 


195 


and  ground  into  disc  form  (fig.  34),  and 
smaller  but  similar  discs  probably  used  as 
game  counters,  varying  from  0.8  in.  to  3.5 
in.  in  diameter. 


FIG.  34. — Pot-cover  made  from   a  sherd,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island.    (Diameter,  4.6  in.) 

MANUFACTURE  OF  POTTERY 

The  Cherokee  on  the  Qualla  reservation 
in  North  Carolina  still  retained  a  number 
of  pottery  vessels  in  daily  use  when  visited 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


196 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


by  the  writer  in  1908,  and  at  least  one 
skilful  potter  still  practised  the  art.  To 
make  a  long  story  short,  the  writer  studied 
her  methods,  and  the  results  of  his  investi- 
gations were  published  by  the  State  of 
New  York,48  from  which  report  the  follow- 
ing account  of  the  processes  involved, 
which  probably  are  practically  the  same  as 
in  prehistoric  times,  is  quoted: 

"Mr.  James  Mooney  had  given  me  the 
name  of  one  potter,  Iwi  Katalsta,  and  I 
lost  no  time  in  making  her  acquaintance. 
Inquiry  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  but  one 
more,  an  aged  woman  known  as  Jennie 
Arch,  whose  feeble  hands  had  all  but  lost 
their  skill.  For  this  reason  I  confined  my- 
self almost  entirely  to  Iwi's  methods  of 
pottery-making.  Fully  half  the  pottery  I 
secured  from  the  Eastern  Cherokee  is  said 
to  be  the  work  of  her  hand. 

"Her  tools  were  few,  and  with  one  excep- 
tion, simple,  consisting  of  a  hammerstone 
for  pounding  the  clay,  a  sharpened  bit  of 
stick  for  making  lines  and  notches,  and  a 
fine  grained,  waterworn  pebble  for  smooth- 
ing, showing  the  polish  of  long  use  (pi. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


POTTER'S  TOOLS  OF  THE   MODERN   CHEROKEE 
a,  c,  Stamping  paddles;  6,  Smoothing  stone.    Length  of  a,  9.2  in. 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE   WOMAN    POUNDING   CLAY   FOR   POTTERY 
Courtesy  of  the  New  York  State  Museum 


TOOLS— CLAY 


197 


LXIII,  £)•  The  exception  is  the  carved 
paddle  for  stamping  the  pottery — a  broad- 
bladed  wooden  affair  about  8  in.  long, 
carefully  carved  to  produce  a  checkerwork 
pattern  when  struck  against  soft  clay  (pi. 
LXIII,  a).  More  paddles  bearing  different 
figures  were  later  collected,  some  quite 
complex  (pi.  LXHI,  c).  Other  accessories 
were  a  common  axe,  a  bucket  of  water,  a 
low-sided  wooden  tray  for  kneading  clay, 
and  a  flat,  oval  piece  of  wood  used  as  a 
stand  to  build  large  jars  upon  and  provided 
with  a  handle  at  each  end  for  convenience 
in  turning;  some  saucers  of  china  or  gourd, 
and  some  pieces  of  cotton  sheeting. 

"After  Iwi  Katalsta  had  dug  her  clay 
from  a  bed  on  Soco  creek,  the  exact  location 
of  which  she  did  not  seem  inclined  to  reveal, 
she  was  accustomed  to  mold  it  into  a  cake 
some  14  in.  long,  resembling  in  form  a  loaf 
of  bread,  in  which  shape  it  was  dried  and 
laid  away  for  future  use.  When  we  visited 
her  home  at  'Yellow  Hill'  and  requested 
her  to  make  us  some  pottery,  she  broke  off 
the  end  of  this  cake  and  proceeded  to 
pulverize  it  on  her  hearthstone,  using  the 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


198 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


back  of  a  common  axe  as  a  crushing  instru- 
ment. In  old  times,  she  explained,  a  'long 
rock'  was  used  for  this  purpose. 

"When  sufficiently  pulverized  the  clay 
was  placed  in  a  wooden  tray,  moistened 
and  again  thoroughly  pounded  (pi.  LXIV). 
This  time  Iwi  used  a  hammerstone  which 
she  kept  especially  to  crush  hickory-nuts, 
but  which  she  often  used  in  place  of  the 
axe  in  pounding  the  dampened  clay.  From 
time  to  time  the  mass  was  kneaded  and  a 
little  more  water  or  dry  clay  added  as 
seemed  necessary  to  obtain  the  required 
consistency.  Sometimes,  I  was  informed, 
a  fine  sand  was  added  at  this  stage  as  a 
tempering  material;  but  in  this  case  it  was 
omitted. 

"Iwi  had  a  vessel  of  the  pot  form  in  mind. 
Taking  a  large  handful  of  the  clay,  she 
patted  it  into  a  ball,  which  she  took  in 
both  hands  and  pressing  her  thumbs  deeply 
into  one  side,  began  to  turn  it  rapidly. 
In  a  surprisingly  short  time  a  small  bowl 
with  fairly  thin  sides  was  produced  to 
serve  as  a  base  for  the  future  vessel.  Dur- 
ing this  process  she  had  taken  care  to  keep 


INDIAN    NOTES 


MOLDING 


199 


her  hands  wet.  Then  supporting  the 
inside  of  the  bowl  with  the  fingers  of  her 
left  hand  she  struck  it  sharply  on  the  out- 
side with  her  carved  paddle,  slightly  turn- 
ing the  embryo  vessel  before  each  stroke 
and  moistening  the  paddle  now  and  then  in 
a  vessel  of  water  which  stood  near.  The 
bowl-shaped  base  was  then  carefully  laid 
upon  a  bit  of  cotton  cloth  resting  on  a  com- 
mon china  saucer.  When  questioned  as  to 
what  the  Indians  used  before  saucers  were 
available,  Iwi  replied  through  the  inter- 
preter that  she  had  heard  that  for  large 
vessels  the  base  was  set  in  a  hole  in  the 
sand  lined  with  some  sort  of  cloth,  the 
sand  being  often  inclosed  in  a  basket  for 
convenience.  For  small  vessels,  she  said, 
a  saucer  made  of  gourd  was  just  as  service- 
able as  one  of  china,  and  as  I  liked  the  old 
style,  she  would  take  care  to  use  gourd 
supports  hereafter  in  making  pottery  for 
me.  It  was  her  custom,  she  continued, 
when  making  the  large,  flat-bottomed 
hominy  jars  to  set  the  base  on  the  oval, 
flat  utensil  of  wood  before  mentioned 
especially  made  for  the  purpose  and  pro- 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


200 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


vided  with  a  handle  at  each  end  to  facilitate 
turning. 

"The  bowl-shaped  base  having  been 
safely  ensconced  in  the  saucer,  she  pinched 
its  edges  thin  with  wet  fingers;  then,  rapidly 
rolling  out  a  lump  of  clay  on  a  plank  into  a 
long  thin  cylinder  (pi.  LXV),  she  applied  it 
just  inside  the  rim  of  the  base  and  project- 
ing above  it  about  half  its  width,  pinching 
it  fast  the  while  until  the  circuit  was  com- 
pleted (pi.  LXVI).  The  coil  proved  a  bit 
too  long,  so  she  broke  the  superfluous 
piece  off  and  blended  the  two  ends  together 
with  care.  Then  by  careful  pinching  and 
smoothing  with  wet  fingers  and  fingernails, 
the  coil  was  blended  with  the  bowl-shaped 
base  and  thinned  at  the  top  to  receive 
another  coil  which  was  also  applied  inside. 
The  object  of  applying  each  coil  inside 
instead  of  directly  on  top  of  the  preceding 
was  to  produce  strength  by  overlapping. 
Thus  the  coiling  proceeded  until  the 
required  form  and  height  were  reached, 
when  the  rim  coil  was  applied  outside  the 
one  beneath.  After  being  blended  in  the 
usual  way,  this  was  pinched  into  lateral 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


ROLLING  THE  COIL  OF  CLAY   PREPARATORY  TO    MAKING    A 

POTTERY  VESSEL 
Courtesy  of  the  New  York  State  Museum 


HARRINGTON  — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


APPLYING   A  COIL  TO  THE  BASE  OF  THE  VESSEL 
Courtesy  of  the  New  York  State  Museum 


STAMPING 


201 


protuberances,  and  notched,  dotted,  or 
marked  with  a  sharpened  stick  to  suit  the 
fancy.  After  each  coil  had  been  applied 
and  blended,  the  vessel  was  allowed  to 
dry  and  harden  a  few  minutes  before  the 
next  one  was  added;  and  after  the  jar  had 
received  its  shape,  it  was  allowed  to  become 
quite  firm  before  the  final  stamping  was 
applied. 

"It  will  be  remembered  that  the  base  of 
the  vessel  had  already  been  stamped  before 
being  placed  in  the  saucer,  so  it  was  now 
necessary  only  to  strike  the  body  briskly 
with  the  wet  paddle  until  the  surface  was 
covered  with  its  imprints  (pi.  LXVH)  .  In  one 
jar  the  stamping  was  complete  before  the 
rim  was  added.  After  stamping,  the  ves- 
sel was  set  away  to  dry. 

"The  fact  that  Iwi  used  no  tools  except 
the  paddle,  the  marking  stick  and  her 
fingers,  seemed  remarkable  to  me,  in  view 
of  the  numerous  smoothing  tools  of  gourd, 
shell,  bone,  and  wood,  employed  by  the 
Catawba.49  Inquiry  revealed  the  fact  that 
while  they  had  apparently  never  heard  of 
gourd  smoothers,  the  Cherokee  formerly 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


202 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


used  mussel-shells  and  a  marine  shell, 
probably  some  species  of  Cardium,  for  this 
purpose.  Iwi  herself  sometimes  used  a  chip 
of  wood  in  making  large  vessels. 

"After  drying, — a  process  that  takes 
from  one  to  three  days,  depending  on  the 
weather, — the  vessel  was  carefully  rubbed 
and  polished  on  the  inside,  and  on  the  out- 
side whenever  necessary,  with  the  smooth- 
ing stone  kept  wet  by  continual  dipping  in 
water. 

"When  a  number  of  vessels  had  been 
made  and  dried,  the  next  step  was  to  prop 
the  vessels  up  on  their  sides  around  the  fire, 
mouth  toward  the  blaze,  until  a  faint 
brown  color,  beginning  near  the  fire,  crept 
over  the  whole  of  the  vessels — a  sign  that 
they  were  hot  enough  for  firing.  Then  the 
potter,  with  a  long  stick,  rolled  them  over, 
mouth-down,  upon  the  embers  (pi.  LXVIII)  , 
and  covered  them  with  pieces  of  dry  bark 
to  the  depth  of  2  or  3  inches.  Making  sure 
that  the  bark  had  caught  fire  all  around 
(pi.  LXIX),  she  left  them  to  their  fate. 
About  an  hour  later  the  bark  had  burned 
away,  leaving  the  rounded  bottoms  of  -the 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


THE   USE  OF  THE  STAMPING    PADDLE 
Courtesy  of  the  New  York  State  Museum 


> 


21 

<  .=> 

tr  >-> 

EC 


DRYING— FIRING 


203 


pots  protruding  through  the  ashes.  Then, 
taking  her  long  hooked  stick,  Iwi  rolled  the 
vessels  from  the  fire,  tapping  them  sharply 
to  detect  cracks.  If  a  vessel  rang  clear  it 
was  perfect. 

"  'In  order  to  be  good  for  cooking,  these 
pots  should  be  smoked,'  she  said.  'If 
this  is  not  done,  the  water  will  soak  through.' 
So  she  dropped  a  handful  of  bran  in  each 
one  while  they  were  still  almost  red-hot, 
stirred  it  with  her  stick,  tipped  the  pots 
this  way  and  that, -and  finally,  turning  out 
the  now  blazing  bran  from  each  in  turn, 
inverted  the  vessels  upon  it.  In  this  way 
the  inside  was  smoked  black  and  rendered 
impervious,  and  this  without  leaving  any 
odor  of  smoke  in  the  vessels  when  they 
became  cold.  Generally,  Iwi  told  me, 
crushed  corncobs  were  employed  for  this 
purpose,  but  she  always  used  bran  when 
cobs  were  not  available.  This  probably 
explains  the  black  color  of  the  inner  surface 
so  often  seen  in  aboriginal  pottery. 

"I  was  told  that  in  later  times  the  firing 
has  been  generally  done  indoors,  because  an 
absolutely  still  day  was  necessary  for  a 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


204 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

- 

successful  burning  in   the  open   air,   any 
breeze  being  liable  to  crack  the  vessels. 
The  firing  of  my  pottery  was,  however, 
done  outdoors,  the  fire  being  built  on  a 
rude  hearth  of  flat  stones  sunk  level  with 
the  ground." 

INDI'AN  N^OTES 

CO    Jj 
-I    3 


co  t; 

<"! 

i£ 

^~  ^ 

o  -I 


u 
1*0 


205 

XI.  REMAINS   OF  THE   CHEROKEE: 
IMPLEMENTS  AND  UTENSILS 

GENERAL  CHARACTER 

WE    HAVE    already    discussed    the 
.                pottery  of  the  Cherokee  as  found 

g^H     on  the  sites  of  their  villages  on 

Tennessee  river.    Of  their  other 
utensils  and  implements  we  can  say  only 
that,  with  few  exceptions,  they  differ  little 
from  what  we  might  expect  to  find  on  a 
large  proportion  of  the  aboriginal  sites  of 
the    late    precolonial    and    early    colonial 
periods  in   a   district  reaching   northward 
from  eastern  Tennessee  across  Kentucky 
into  Ohio,  whatever  the  tribe  occupying 
them.    The  objects  seem  to  have  a  regional 
rather  than  a  tribal  distribution,  a  phe- 
nomenon which  may  still  be  observed:  for 
instance,    in    the    distribution    of    certain 
types    of    woven    bags    common     to    the 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

206 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

Menomini,    Potawatomi,    Kickapoo,    and 

other  Central  Algonkian  tribes,  and  also 

to   such   Siouan   tribes  as   the  Iowa  and 

the  Winnebago.    There  are  certain  features, 

however,  such  as  the  exclusive  use  of  celt- 

axes  and  triangular  arrowpoints,  and  the 

forms  of  some  pipes  and  bone  implements. 

which  seem  to  have  more  individuality. 

HUNTING  AND  WAR  EQUIPMENT 

Even   to   the  more  or  less  agricultural 

tribes  of  the  Eastern  Woodland  area,  the 

chase,  although  perhaps  not  so  important 

as  to  the  hunting  peoples  farther  west  and 

north,  was  still  a  very  important  factor  of 

food  supply,  and  the  necessary  implements, 

although  simple,  received  careful  attention. 

The  equipment  needed  for  war  was  similar, 

in  this  district,  at  least,  and  the  weapons  or 

parts    of    weapons    remaining    cannot    be 

distinguished  from  those  used  in  hunting. 

Indeed,  among  some  Eastern  tribes  a  man 

might  say,  "I  am  going  to  hunt  men," 

instead  of  "I  am  going  to  war"  or  "I  am 

going  out  to  fight."    Undoubtedly,  how- 

INDIAN   NOTES 

H  U  N  T  I  N  G  —  W  A  R 

207 

ever,    special    head-dresses,    charms,    and 

regalia  were  used  in  war  which  have  now 

disappeared. 

ARROWPOINTS  OF  FLINT 

Like  their  linguistic  relatives,  the  Iro- 

quois,  the  Cherokee  seem  to  have  used  the 

triangular  type  of  arrowpoint*  exclusively; 

indeed  we  did  not  find  so  much  as  a  single 

stemmed   arrowpoint   with   any    Cherokee 

burial,  nor  with  any  of  the  earlier  burials 

resembling  those  of  the  Cherokee,  except 

one  with  a  very  old  skeleton  in  the  nucleus 

of  Mound  5  at  Hiwassee  island,  and  this 

seems   to   have  been  shot  into   the  flesh 

rather   than  buried  with   the  body   as  a 

mortuary  offering.     Lest  it  should  be  said 

that  the  triangular  points  were  used  for  war 

arrows  only,  and  for  this  reason  were  buried 

with  dead  warriors,  and  that  the  Cherokee 

may  have  used  stemmed   arrowpoints  for 

hunting,  we  must  add  that  not  only  did  we 

fail    to    find    stemmed    ar-rowpoints    with 

Cherokee  burials,  but  they  did  not  appear 

in  the  refuse  deposits  of  this  people,  the 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

208 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


only  points  of  this  type  in  the  collection 
having  come  from  deposits  of  the  "Round 
Grave"  period,  or  from  the  surface  away 
from  any  deposits  of  village  refuse. 

The  material  of  which  the  typical  Chero- 
kee stone  arrowpoints  were  made  in  this 
district  is  a  flint,  sometimes  quite  trans- 
lucent, and  fanging  in  color  from  light-gray 
to  black,  with  a  few  white  and  yellowish 
specimens.  The  form  is  always  triangular, 
as  noted  above,  usually  rather  narrow  in 
proportion  to  its  length,  as  seen  in  a,  h,  d, 
f,  g,  of  pi.  LXX,  but  sometimes  broader  as 
in  h,  i,  while  the  bases  may  be  straight  as 
in  b,  or  indented  as  in  a  and  i,  and  the 
base  often  expands  sharply  to  the  sides,  as 
seen  in  b  and  /.  Sometimes  points  are 
serrated  on  one  side,  like  d,  sometimes  on 
both  sides;  the  workmanship  is  usually 
excellent.  It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that 
as  a  rule  the  arrowpoints  found  at  the 
Nacoochee  mound  in  northern  Georgia, 
associated  with.  Cherokee  remains,  are  of 
the  elongate  triangular  type,  and  the  bases 
are  often  concave,50  but  the  workmanship  of 


INDIAN    NOTES 


ARROWPOINTS 

209 

the  Georgia  examples  is  not  so  good  as  that 

of  the  points  from  Tennessee.     In  length, 

the  arrowpoints  we  found  varied  from  0.8 

in.  to  2  in.,  with  an  average  of  about  1.3  in. 

One  fact  was  particularly  noticeable  —  the 

arrowpoints   used    by    the    early    mound- 

building  tribe  which  followed  the  "Round 

Grave  people"  and  whose  relationship  to 

the  Cherokee  is  doubtful,  cannot  be  dis- 

tinguished   from    those    we    know    to    be 

Cherokee. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Lenoir  City  another 

form   of   triangular,    stemless   arrowpoints 

appeared  with  slightly  bulging  edges,  very 

much  like  the  knife  shown  in  pi.  LXX,  c, 

but  of  course  smaller  in  size. 

ARROWPOINTS  OF  ANTLER 

In    all    probability    most    of    the    stone 

arrowheads  the  Indians  made  are  still  in 

existence  somewhere,  if  only  in  fragments, 

as  flint  is  practically   indestructible;   but 

the  same  can  not  be  said  of  the  arrowpoints 

made  of  deer-antler,  of  which  large  numbers 

were  probably  used,  but  most  of  which  have 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

210 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

now  disappeared,  owing  to  the  perishable 

character  of  the  material.    The  few  that  we 

»          were  able  to  secure  were   of 

A          the  type  illustrated  in  fig.  35, 

flm        which    is   merely   the    conical 

ij  M        tip  of  an    antler    prong,   cut 

II  |JM       approximately    square    across, 

fflJB      sharpened,  and  a  hole  drilled 

I  |R     in  the  base  for  the  reception 

•  '  fll     °^  ^e  shaft.    Another   exam- 

|l   I          pie,  apparently  not  quite  fin- 

ished, is  seen  in  pi.  LXXVIII, 

jL^fHgf     °"     ^   ^ew    fragments  were 

FIG.  35,-Am>wpoint    found  which  may  be 

of  deer-antler    Hiwassee     from    arrowpohlts    of 
island.    (Length,  1.6m.) 

bone;    but    no    whole 

specimens  appeared,  hence  we  can  not  be 

quite  sure  of  the  shape. 

Bows  AND  ARROWS 

If  we  may  judge  by  the  style  of  arrows 

in  use  among  the   Cherokee  within  recent 

years,  the  arrowpoints  just  described  were 

once  affixed  to  the  ends  of  arrows  3  ft.  or 

more  in  length,  which  were  equipped  with 

two   feathers   bound   on   with   sinew;  and 

INDIAN   NOTES 

HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


BONE   IMPLEMENTS  OF  THE  CHEROKEE 

a,  c,  Sites  near  Lenoir  City;  h,  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton,  Tennessee. 
Length  of  c,  9.9  in. 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


FLINT    KNIFE  OF  THE  CHEROKEE.   MAINLAND    VILLAGE-SITE. 

LENOIR  CITY.  TENNESSEE 

Length,  10  in. 


BOWS  —  SPEARS 

211 

these   arrows   were  propelled   with   5-foot 

bows  of  rectangular  section,  1|  in.  to  2  in. 

wide,  and  half  to  three-quarters  of  an  inch 

thick,  and  provided  with  a  string  of  tough, 

twisted  woodchuck-skin.       The  Cherokee 

also  use  a  blowgun  made  of  a  long  tube  of 

cane,    through    which    slender    arrows    of 

cane  or  of  wood  18  or  20  in.  long  and  feath- 

ered with  thistledown,  are  blown  with  the 

breath,  giving  them  for,ce  enough  to  kill 

small  game;  but  as  all  these  materials  are 

perishable,  no  trace  of  blowguns  appears  in 

archeological  excavations. 

SPEARS 

Whether  or  not  the  Cherokee  used  spears 

in  hunting  or  in  war  would  be  hard  to  say; 

certainly    we    found    nothing    that    with 

probability  could  be  called   "spearheads," 

except  the  bone  object  shown  in  pi.  LXXI,  b, 

which  is  provided  with  a  socket  in  the  base, 

into  which  the  end  of  a  shaft  could  be 

fitted.    Two  or  three  similar  but  somewhat 

smaller    implements    also    appeared,    but 

these  lacked  the  three  decorative  incised 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

212 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

lines  encircling  the  base  that  are  seen  in 

the  specimen  illustrated. 

KNIVES 

As  a  necessary  implement  for  both  hunt- 

ing and  war,  the  knife  must  have  possessed 

no  little  importance  to  the  Cherokee;  and 

as  large  flint  blades  were  difficult  to  make, 

they  doubtless  were  of  considerable  value. 

In  shape  and  size  the  flint  knife  seen  in  pi. 

LXX,  c,  may  be  considered  typical,  and  this 

is  also  a  common  type  among  the  Iroquois 

relatives  of   the    Cherokee  in  the  north; 

but  another  familiar  pattern  is  the  fine 

ten-inch  blade  seen  in  pi.  LXXII,  which  is 

made  of  a  mottled  gray  flint.    This,  which 

was  found  at  the  Mainland  village-site,  is 

similar  in  material  to  the  knife  found  at 

Nacoochee  mound,  and  is  like  it  also  in 

form,  except  that  the  latter  has  a  pointed 

instead  of  a  square  base;  another  was  dis- 

covered by  Messrs  Barnes  and  Benham  on 

Hiwassee    island,    and    such    knives    are 

reported  from  other  parts  of  the  old  Chero- 

kee domain.     Flint  knives  were  probably 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE    CELTS.     HIWASSEE     ISLAND,     NEAR     DAYTON. 

TENNESSEE 
Length  of  b,  9.3  in. 


KNIVES—  AXES 

213 

here,  as  elsewhere,  provided  with  a  short 

handle  of  wood. 

AXES 

Useful  in  war  and  on  the  hunt,  as  well  as 

at  home,  the  axe  was  also  an  important 

implement  to  the  Cherokee.    Like  the  Iro- 

quois  tribes  of  the  north,  they  seem  to  have 

used  the  grooveless  or  celt  type  exclusively. 

Not  even  a  fragment  of  a  grooved  axe  was 

found  by  any  member  of  our  party  in  any 

Cherokee  deposit,  other  axes  (of  the  celt 

form),  whole  or  in  fragments,  being  quite 

common. 

Two  distinct  types  of  celts  may  be  recog- 

nized, most  abundant  being  a  flat  type  with 

rectangular  section  seen  in  pi.  LXXIII   and 

LXXIV,  a,  which  is  like  that  once  popular 

among    the    Iroquois;    and    the    rounded 

type,  with    elliptical    section,  seen   in   pi. 

LXXIV,  b,  c.    In  length  -these  .celts  range 

from  4   in.    to   9   in.;    the   material  is  a 

variety  of  hard,  tough,  fine-grafned  stones, 

usually  grayish  or  bluish,  sometimes  green- 

ish or  black.     Some  of  the  smaller  speci- 

mens, like  that  in  pi.  LXXIII,   a,  which  is 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

214 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


J313 

HS 


«     TO 

fc 


double-bitted,  were 
probably  used  as 
chisel-  or  adze- 
blades,  but  most 
seem  to  have  been 
true  axes.  Such 
celts  are  found  all 
through  the  old  Che- 
rokee country,  the 
Nacoochee  mound 
being  no  exception; 
and  for  that  matter 
far  beyond  their  do- 
main, so  that  caution 
must  be  exercised  in 
attempting  to  use 
their  presence  as  a 
criterion  of  culture. 
The  writer  is  not 
in  a  position  to  tell 
whether  the  use  of 
the  celt  type  of  axe 
to  the  exclusion  of 
the  grooved  form  is 
a  strictly  Iroquoian 
characteristic  not 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


a 


CHEROKEE  AWLS  AND   FISHHOOK  OF   BONE 

a,/,  Sites  near  Lenoir  City;  remainder  from  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton, 

Tennessee.    Length  of  o,  5.2  in. 


HARRINGTON  —  CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PESTLES  OF  STONE 

a,  "Bell"  type,  Wright's  Ferry,  near  Knoxville;  b,  Showing  upper  end 
ground  to  a  celt  edge,  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton,  Tennessee. 
Length  of  b,  9.8  in. 


FISHING 

215 

shared  by  some  other  tribes;  but  he  can  state 

definitely  that  when  axes  of  any  kind  are 

found  in  graves  anywhere  in  the  eastern 

half  of   the  United  States,   whatever  the 

culture-area  or  tribe,  such  axes  are  usually 

of  the  celt  type,  and  whether  or  not  the 

tribe   in   question   used    the   grooved   axe 

also  must  be  determined  by  the  excavation 

of  their  refuse  deposits. 

The  Cherokee  manner  of  hafting  these 

celts  was  probably  more  or  less  like  that 

shown  in  fig.  36,  which  represents  a  hafted 

» 

celt  found  near  Chattanooga,   the  handle 

being  a  copy  of  the  original. 

•       FISHING  TACKLE 

Judging  by  the  numerous  fish-bones  still 

to  be  found  in  the  Cherokee  refuse  heaps  on 

Tennessee  river,  fishing  must  have  been, 

to  these  people,  an  important  means  of  add- 

ing   to    the   food   supply.    Little   is   left, 

however,  in  the  way  of  artifacts  to  indicate 

how  the  fishing  was  done:  merely  a  few 

fishhooks  of  bone  (pi.  LXXV,  g),  in  shape 

somewhat   similar  to  the  hooks  of  metal 

used  today,  but  barbless;  and  "net-sinkers," 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

216 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


which  are  simply  flat  natural  pebbles  arti- 
ficially notched  at  the  sides  to  keep  the 
cord  which  bound  them  to  the  net  from 
slipping  off.  Such  sinkers  have  been  used 
until  modern  times  by  a  number  of  tribes. 

Lieutenant  Timberlake,51  however,  who 
visited  these  Indians  in  1762,  explicitly 
states  that,  "Having  as  yet  no  nets,  the 
Indians  catch  the  fish  with  lines,  spears, 
and  dams;"  but  it  appears  from  other 
accounts  that  they  used  ropes  of  vines 
weighted  with  stones  to  drag  down  the 
streams  to  drive  the  fish  into  these  "dams" 
or  traps.  Therefore  it  is  possible  that  our 
"net-sinkers,"  if  nets  were  really  not  used 
in  this  district,  were  employed  to  weight 
these  vine  ropes.  The  finding  of  thou- 
sands of  shells  of  freshwater  mussels  and  of 
some  of  the  larger  univalves  still  existing 
in  the  river  show  the  use  of  these  molluscs 
as  food;  but  nothing  is  left  to  show  exactly 
how  they  were  taken,  if  indeed  any  appa- 
ratus was  needed  other  than  a  basket  to 
carry  them  in  as  they  were  picked  out  of 
the  shallow  water  by  hand. 

Among  the  shellfish  most  used  were  four 


INDIAN    NOTES 


AGRICULTURE 

217 

species  of  mussels:  Unio  gibbosus  (Barnes), 

Lampsilis    ventricosa    (Barnes),    Lampsilis 

ligamentina  (Lamarck),  and  Quadrula  pus- 

tulosa  var.  pernodosa  (Lea),  with  the  addi- 

tion of  such  large  river  snails  as  lo  turrita 

(Anthony)  and  lo  spinosa  (Lea),  and  such 

smaller  species  as  Anculosa  praerosa  (Say), 

Pyramid  ula  alternata  (Say),  and  Pleurocera 

canaliculatum    (Say),    all   of   which    shells 

were  kindly  identified  for  the  writer  by 

Dr  W.    G.   Van  Name  of   the  American 

Museum  of  Natural  History. 

No  harpoons  or  fish-spears  were  found, 

unless  some  of  the  carefully  made  awl-like 

objects  of  bone,   the  bases  of  which  are 

rounded  as  if  for  insertion  in  a  handle  or  a 

shaft,  may  have  formed  part  of  an  imple- 

ment of  this  kind. 

AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS 

Occasional   carbonized   grains  of  Indian 

< 

corn  and  charred  pieces  of  cobs,  encountered 

in   the   ancient   ash   layers,    afford   visual 

proof,  if  such  were  needed,  of  the  use  of 

this^  grain   by    the    Cherokee;    but    being 

perishable  it  has  not  survived  in  sufficient 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

218 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

quantity  to  give  a  fair  idea  of  its  economic 

importance  to  the  people,  which  must  have 

been  great.    Hoes  of  wood  and  of  bone 

were  probably  much  used  in  the  cultivation 

of  maize,  but  the  only  implements  for  the 

purpose  which  seem  to  have  survived  are 

crudely  chipped,  flat  implements  of  lime- 

stone, slate,  and  sandstone,  of  oblong  form, 

those  we  found  being  about  3  in.  wide  and 

from  3.2  in.  to  6  in.  long,  sometimes  slightly 

notched  to   facilitate    attachment   to    the 

handle,  their  edges  often  showing  polish 

and   striation    due    to    constant   abrasion 

by  the  soil. 

IMPLEMENTS  FOR  FOOD  PREPARATION 

The  implements  used  in  securing  food  by 

hunting,  fishing,  and  farming,  having  been 

described,   we  now   turn   to   those  whose 

use  seems    to  have    been    chiefly  in    the 

t 

preparation    of    their   products.     For    the 

hunter's  provisions,  besides  the  knives  to 

skin  and  cut  up  his  game,  and  the  pots  in 

which  to  boil  the  meat,  which  have  been 

already  described,  there  is  little  to  record, 

except   perhaps   the   hammerstone.    This, 

INDIAN    NOTES 

FOOD    PREPARATION 


219 


used  to  crack  the  bones  in  order  to  extract 
the  luscious  marrow,  was  usually  a  flat, 
rounded,  waterworn  bowlder  small  enough 
to  hold  in  the  hand,  battered  about  the 
periphery  from  long  use,  and  sometimes 
provided  with  a  pit  pecked  into  the  center 
of  each  side  to  afford  a  firm  hold  for  thumb 
and  finger. 

The  same  flint  knives  would  be  of  service 
in  scaling  and  cutting  up  fish,  and  the  same 
pots  for  cooking  them;  but* when  we  turn 
to  the  products  of  agriculture,  we  find  other 
implements  necessary. 

The  Cherokee  of  today  crush  their  corn 
in  a  large  wooden  mortar  with  a  heavy 
wooden  pestle;  but  a  cylindrical  stone 
pestle  found  in  a  grave  (fig.  37),  and  another 
picked  up  on  the  surface,  both  from  Hiwas- 
see  island,  show  that  in  former  years  stone 
as  well  as  wood  was  sometimes  used  for  this 
purpose.  The  latter  specimen  is  very 
unusual  in  that,  while  one  end  is  rounded 
for  grinding  in  the  ordinary  manner,  the 
other  is  beveled  to  a  celt-like  edge,  as  may 
be  seen  in  pi.  LXXVI,  b.  The  other  pestle 
shown  in  this  plate  (a)  represents  one  of 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


220 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


the  "bell"  type,  and  although 
found  within  the  Cherokee 
country,  it  is  probably  not  of 
Cherokee  origin. 

The  long,  cylindrical  pestles 
were  doubtless  intended  for 
use  with  deep  wooden  mor- 
tars; for  the  mortars  of  stone 
not  infrequently  found  on 
Cherokee  sites  are  mere  slabs, 
Containing  but  shallow,  bowl- 
shaped  cavities  in  which  a 
small,  rounded  bowlder  or 
grinding  stone  would  be  more 
useful  than  a  long  pestle. 

To  the  list  of  implements 
used  in  preparing  food  we 
must  add  the  pitted  "nut- 
stones,"  a  good  example  of 
which  appears  in  pi.  LXXVII, 
still  used  by  the  Cherokee  to 
crush  the  nuts  required  in 
making  several  native  dishes, 
FIG.  37.— Pestle  of  and  called  by  them 

stone,  Hiwassee  island.    ns,nwijn<>'ii!nlfi''itin       Tt  an 
(Length,  14.5  in.)  &anu  Swaia  sn  • 

pears  that  the  stone  is  set 


INDIAN   NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PITTED    STONE     FOR    CRACKING     NUTS,    HIWASSEE     ISLAND. 
NEAR  DAYTON.  TENNESSEE 
Greatest  diameter,  6.3  in. 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PL.    LXXVIII 


OBJECTS  OF  BONE  AND  ANTLER,  CHEROKEE 

a-d,  Sites  near  Lenoir  City;  e,  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton,  Tennessee. 

Length  of  a,  4.7  in. 


CLOTHING 

221 

in  a  basket,  and  a  number  of  nuts  are  placed 

on  it  at  one  time,  each  in  a  pit;  they  are 

then  all  crushed  by  one  blow  of  a  hammer- 

stone,  are  brushed  off  into  the  basket,  and 

the  process  repeated.     Shells  and  kernels 

are  afterward  separated  by  first  running 

them  through  a  coarse  basketry  sieve  which 

takes  out  the  larger  bits  of  shell;  then  crush- 

ing the  product  as  fine  as  possible  in  a 

mortar,  after  which  it  is  placed  in  a  fine 

basket  sieve  and  water  poured  through  it. 

This  washes  out  the  meats  in  the  form  of 

fine  particles,    leaving    the    shell   behind. 

The  resultant  fluid  may  then  be  mixed  with 

corn  soup  or  otherwise  employed  —  it  cer- 

tainly imparts  a  delicious  flavor,   as  the 

writer  knows  by  experience. 

CLOTHING  AND  IMPLEMENTS  FOR  ITS 

MANUFACTURE 

Like  most  of  the  Indians  of  the  South- 

eastern district,  the  Cherokee  men  seem  to 

have  worn   the  breechclout,   mantle,  and 

moccasins,  with  leggings  on  occasion;  and 

the  women  a  similar  costume  except  that 

in  their  case  the   short  skirt,  or  rather  a 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

• 

222 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


blanket-like  piece  of  skin  or  fabric  belted 
skirt- wise  about  the  waist,  replaced  the 
breechclout.  Deerskin  seems  to  have  been 
the  most  general  material  for  moccasins, 
but  clouts  and  skirts  could  be  either  of  this 
material  or  of  some  kind  of  fabric  usually 
made  of  vegetal  fiber;  while  the  robes  might 
be  made  of  deerskin,  fiber  fabric,  and  furs  for 
cold  weather,  or  of  fine  feathers  on  a  woven 
base.  Of  fabrics  the  Cherokee  village-sites 
examined  by  our  expedition  yielded  nothing 
except  imprints  of  textiles  seen  on  vessels 
of  the  "salt-pan"  type,  imprints  that  have 
been  aptly  termed  "fossil  fabrics."  Wax 
casts  of  these  give  a  good  idea  of  the  manner 
of  weaving,  which,  although  always  based 
on  the  "twined"  technique,  shows  con- 
siderable variation,  as  may  be  seen  by  the 
accompanying  drawings  (figs.  38,  46), 
made  from  the  casts  of  three'typical  speci- 
mens. Of  these  the  fabric  shown  in  fig.  38, 
a,  is  possibly  part  of  a  skirt,  breechclout, 
or  mantle,  and  b  may  represent  a  like  gar- 
ment, although  the  weave  is  rather  open; 
but  the  fabric  shown  in  fig.  46  seems  to  be 
part  of  a  woven  bag  such  as  may  still  be 


INDIAN    NOTES 


TEXTILES 


223 


met   among    the   Central    Algonkian   and 
Southern  Siouan  tribes. 


FIG.  38. — Cherokee  textiles  as  shown  by  imprints  on 
potsherds. 

No  implements  with  which  this  weaving 
was  done  appeared  during  our  excavations, 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


224 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


or  at  least,  if  found,  were  not  recognized  as 
such,  but  the  highly  polished  bone  "pin" 
shown  in  pi.  Lxxvm,  a,  and  some  of  the 
implements  seen  in  pi.  LXXV,  classed  as  awls 
and  bodkins,  may  have  had  some  such  use. 

When  we  turn  to  the  preparation  of 
skins  and  their  manufacture  into  clothing, 
we  find  that  time  has  spared  to  us  a  larger 
assortment  of  implements  whose  purpose 
can  not  be  doubted.  The  first  of  these,  in 
order  of  use,  after  the  flint  knife  (pi.  LXX, 
c;  Lxxn)  had  made  the  incision,  was  prob- 
ably the  spatula-like  bone  implement  seen 
in  pi.  LXXI,  a,.  This,  besides  its  probable 
use  in  separating  hide  and  flesh  during  the 
skinning  process,  was  undoubtedly  em- 
ployed, as  are  similar  implements  among 
many  tribes  today,  as  a  flesher  for  cleaning 
the  inner  surface  of  the  skin  after  its 
removal,  the  perforation  at  the  top  furnish- 
ing attachment  to  a  thong  which  was  passed 
around  the  wrist  to  steady  the  implement. 

Combining  a  flesher  like  the  last  with  a 
beaming  tool,  or  "dehairer,"  is  the  very 
unusual  implement  seen  in  pi.  LXXI,  c,  one 
end  serving  the  former  purpose,  while  the 


INDIAN    NOTES 


SKINS 

225 

middle  portion  is  cut  out  so  that  it  could 
be  used,  after  the  manner  of  a  draw-shave, 
to    remove    the    hair    from    skins.     Both 

fleshers  and  beaming  tools,  especially  the 
latter,  are  frequently  met  in  different  parts 

Ci 

m 

FIG.  39.  —  Scraper  of  flint,  Hhvassee  island.    (Length, 
1.6  in.) 

of  the  country,  both  on  ancient  sites  and 
still  in  use  among  surviving  tribes;  but  the 
writer  has  never  before  seen  the  two  com- 

bined in  one  implement. 
Flint  scrapers  of  the  pattern  seen  in  fig. 
39  probably  served  also  for  cleaning  the 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

226 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


flesh  side  of  skins;  while  rudely  chipped, 
flat  discs  of  stone,  the  edges  showing  signs 


PIG.   40. — Flint  core  from  which  many  flakes  have  been 
struck,  Hiwassee  island.    (Length,  2.7  in.) 


INDIAN    NOTES 


SEWING 

of  long  wear,  seem  to  have  been  used  for 
softening  them. 

The  skins  once  dressed,  the  next 
step  was  to  cut  and  sew  them 
into  garments.  For  cutting 
skins,  especially  deerskin,  which 
is  exceedingly  tough,  the  ordi- 
nary flint  knives  were  not  serv- 
iceable, but  the  writer  has  found 
by  experiment  that  carefullv  EMI 

rJii.-'J 

selected,  fresh  flint  flakes  will  do 
the  work  with  ease  and  dispatch, 
leaving  a  smooth  cut.  Very 
likely  the  flint  core  shown  in 
fig.  40,  which  was  found  with  a 
burial,  was  used  as  a  source  of 
flakes  for  this  and  for  other 
purposes. 

The  sewing  was  accomplished 
by  forcing  the  point  of  an  awl 
through  the  skin  and  thrusting 
the  stiff  sinew  thread  through  the 
hole  thus  formed.  The  awls 
used  ranged  from  the 

FIG.  41.— Rude  bone 

Crude    forms    (merely    awl  with  rounded  base, 
,  ,  ,.  .    Lenoir  or  Bussell's  is- 

sharpened    sphnters    of  land.   (Length,  3.5  in.) 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


227 


228 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


deer-bone  such  as  were 
used  by  the  "Round 
Grave  people")  to  care- 
fully finished  examples 
such  as  appear  in  pi. 
LXXV.  Most  typical  of 
the  Cherokee  are  those 
figured  in  a  and  e  of  this 
plate,  provided  with  a 
sharp  point  at  one  end 
and  a  dull  or  a  rounded 
one  on  the  other,  as  if 
for  insertion  in  a  handle 
of  wood.  Such  awls  are 
neatly  and  carefully  made, 
as  a  rule,  but  occasionally 
a  rough  example  will  be 
found,  as  in  fig.  41,  which, 
although  belonging  to  the 
sharpened-splinter  type, 
has  the  base  rounded  for 
insertion  in  a  handle. 
a  b  As  in  many  other  lo- 

FIG.  42.— Bone  im-    calities,    the   joints   of 

plements    of    unusual     .  .  ...  , 

form,  Lenoir  or    Bus-     bones    from    which    awlS 
sell's  island.     (Length,  ,  r,        ,    c. 

of  6,  s.3  in.)  were  made  were  often  left 


INDIAN    NOTES 


WOODWORKING 

229 

on  as  handles  (pi.  LXXV,/),  and  slender  forms 

of  bird-bone,  like  c  of  the  same  plate,  are 

not    uncommon.     Rarer    forms,    like    the 

neatly  rounded  and  polished  bodkin,  minus 

the  base,  seen  in  b,  and  the  double-pointed 

awl  represented  in  fig.  42,  a,  occasionally 

appeared,   as  did  awl-like  implements  like 

fig.  42,  b,  whose  points  are  flat  instead  of 

rounded,  and  whose  use  is  not  at  all  ob- 

vious, unless  to  serve  as  creasers  in  puck- 

ering moccasins.     Of  course  it  is  possible 

that  all  these  implements  of  awl-like  form 

were  not  actually  used  as  sewing   tools: 

some  may  have  been  employed  in  weaving, 

as   noted  before;   some  may  have  figured 

in  games;  while  others  were  perhaps  even 

arrowpoints  or  spearpoints. 

WOODWORKING  TOOLS 

The  Cherokee  had  use  for  woodworking 

implements   in   cutting  poles  and    timbers 

for    house-building,    in    making    dugout 

canoes,  and  bowls  and  spoons  of  wood,  in 

shaping    bows,    arrows,    spearshafts,    axe- 

handles,  hoe-handles,  war-clubs,  blow-guns 

and    many    other    things    now    forgotten 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

230 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


For  cutting  poles  and  small  trees  the  stone 
axe  of  the  celt  type  (pi.  LXXIH,  LXXIV), 
hafted  more  or  less  like  that  shown  in  fig. 
36,  seems  to  have  been  reasonably  satis- 
factory, although  requiring  a  good  store  of 
patience,  and  bruising  its  way  through  the 
wood  rather  than  cutting  it;  but  for  felling 
large  trees,  fire  was  probably  here,  as  in 
many  other  localities,  brought  into  play, 
and  the  axe  used  simply  for  chopping  out 
the  charcoal  as  the  burning  progressed,  and 
bruising  loose  fresh  fibers  for  the  fire  to 
consume.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  wedges  and 
mauls  of  wood  were  probably  used  for  split- 
ting logs,  but  time  and  decay  have  left  no 
trace  of  them,  although  a  few  battered 
stone  celts  showing  secondary  use  as 
wedges  came  to  light.  Wedges  of  deer- 
antler,  often  seen  elsewhere,  were  not  found 
here. 

The  adze,  useful  in  hollowing  out  canoes 
and  bowls  of  wood,  seems  to  have  taken 
two  forms  here,  the  blade  in  one  case  resem- 
bling an  exceptionally  flat  celt,  sometimes 
double-edged  (pi.  LXXIH,  a),  and  usually 
made  of  the  same  kinds  of  material  as  the 


INDIAN   NOTES 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


ADZE    BLADE    a,    FROM     HIWASSEE    ISLAND    NEAR     DAYTON: 

'GRINDING  STONE  b,  FROM  BUSSELL  PLACE.  LENOIR 

CITY.  TENNESSEE 
Length  of  a,  5.9  in. 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


BEADS  AND  PERFORATED  CORES  OF  CONCH-SHELL 

a,  c,   Sites  near  Lenoir  City;     b,  d,  e,  Hiwassee   island,  near   Dayton, 

Tennessee.    Length  of  e,  7.2  in. 


TOOLS 

celt  proper;  while  the  other  type  (pi.  LXXIX, 
a)  was  made  of  flint  or  of  similar  material, 
carefully  chipped  and  ground  into  form. 
The  shape  is  somewhat  curved,  one  side 
being  slightly  convex,  the  other  concave  or 
flat;  while  the  bit  is  narrower  than  the 
body  of  the  implement.  On  account  of 
the  hardness  of  the  material,  these  adzes 
took  a  very  keen  edge  and  must  have  been 
quite  effectual,  especially  when  used  in 
connection  with  fire.  That  they  were 
really  set  with  their  edges  perpendicular  to 
the  handle,  like  a  true  adze,  and  not  par- 
allel with  it,  like  an  axe,  is  shown  by  a 
polish  due  to  friction  against  the  handle, 
always  observed,  when  existing  at  all,  on 
the  concave  side  of  the  implement,  which 
was  evidently  toward  the  user.  At  this 
point  we  may  recall  the  finding  of  several 
such  adzes,  together  with  some  celts,  with 
the  skeleton  of  a  cripple  on  Hiwassee 
island,  an  unfortunate  who,  when  incapaci- 
tated for  hunting  by  rheumatism  or  some 
other  disease  which  had  affected  the  bones 
of  his  legs,  had  apparently  taken  up  the 


231 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


232 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


manufacture   of   bowls   and    canoes   as   a 
means  of  livelihood. 
For   finer   woodwork,    flint    knives   like 


FIG.  43. — Flint  knife,  Hiwassee  island.    (Length,  3.8  in.) 


INDIAN    NOTES 


STONEWORKING 

233 

those  before  mentioned,  or  other  types  like 

fig.  43,  which  seem  to  have  had  no  handles, 

were  probably  used  for  sawing  and   groov- 

ing; holes  were  bored  with  flint  drills,  of 

which  pi.  LXX,  e,  is  a  good  example,  while 

flint   scrapers   like   fig.   39,    together  with 

flakes  and  chips  of  the  same,  seem  to  have 

served  for  dressing  down  the  work  as  a 

modern    carpenter   uses   a   bit   of   broken 

glass.    Adzes    and    axes    were    probably 

sharpened  on  gritty  rubbing  stones,  such 

as  is  shown  in  pi.  LXXIX,  b,  while  thinner 

pieces  of  coarser  sandstone  took  the  place 

of  rasps  and  sandpaper. 

Many  Eastern  tribes  used  chisels  made 

of  the  incisor  teeth  of  the  beaver  for  their 

finer  woodwork;  but  if  these  were  employed 

by  the  Cherokee,  we   found   no  evidence 

of  such  use. 

IMPLEMENTS  FOR  STOXEWORKING 

On  account  of  the  resistant  nature  of  the 

materials  used,  implements  of  stone  in  all 

stages  of  manufacture  are  still  numerous  on 

the   Cherokee  village-sites,   but   the  tools 

used  in  making   them,  particularly   those 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

234 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


used  in  chipping  flint,  are  none  too  abun- 
dant. They  consisted  merely  of  hammer- 
stones,  which  were  probably  employed, 
among  other  things,  for  percussion  flaking; 
cylinders  (pi.  LXXVIH,  d)  and  truncated 
cones  of  antler  (fig.  44)  with 
worn  and  battered  tips,  prob- 
ably, as  Holmes52  suggests, 
interposed  between  hammer- 
stone  and  flint,  after  the 
manner  of  a  punch,  to  knock 
off  large  flakes;  and  a  few 
slivers  of  bone  whose  deeply 
worn  edges  suggest  use  in 
flaking  by  pressure.  These 
processes  need  not  be  de- 
scribed in  detail  here, 

FIG.  44.— Flaking  tool     ......         , 

of  antler,  Hiwassee  is-    for  this  has  been  ably 

land.    (Length,  1.6  in.)         ,  ,        TT   ,         ,,         , 

done  by  Holmes53  and 
others.  They  seem  to  have  been  in  quite 
general  use  among  American  tribes,  with 
but  slight  local  variation,  in  regard  to 
which  the  material  we  found  on  the 
Cherokee  sites  told  us  nothing. 

The  processes  employed  in  making  celts 
is  well  illustrated  by  a  series  of  specimens 


INDIAN    NOTES 


PROCESSES 


235 


in  all  stages  of  manufacture  found  in  the 
peripheral  addition  to  Mound  2  on  Hiwassee 
island.  Here  appeared  bowlders  and 
blocks  of  material,  of  hard,  tough  stones, 
roughly  battered  and  chipped  by  heavy 
blows  into  approximate  form;  while  others 
showed  the  progress  of  the  pecking  process, 
the  second  step  of  celt-making,  effected  by 
repeated  blows  of  a  hammer  of  hard  stone, 
each  blow  crumbling  a  bit  of  the  surface 
until  all  irregularities  had  been  reduced 
and  the  implement  had  taken  its  final 
form.  Nearly  finished  celts  showing  the 
third  process,  that  of  grinding  with  coarse, 
gritty  stones,  were  not  so  common.  This  in 
many  cases  seems  to  have  been  the  last 
process,*the  product  then  being  regarded  as 
a  finished  axe-head;  but  some  seem  to  have 
been  polished  after  the  grinding  was  com- 
pleted. Most  of  these  specimens,  espe- 
cially in  the  later  stages,  had  been  broken 
in  making,  and  for  that  reason  had  been 
discarded  unfinished.  With  them  appeared 
bowlders  whose  battered  edges  show  long  use 
as  hammers  tones  for  heavy  work;  some  of 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


236 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


these  were  pitted  to  furn'sh  a  grip  to  thumb 
and  fingers,  while  other  smaller  hammer- 
stones  of  flint  and  of  other  very  hard  mate- 
rials seem  to  have  served  as  pecking  tools. 
Similar  methods  were  probably  also 
employed  in  making  the  fine  discoidal  stones 
so  characteristic  of  this  region  (pi.  LXXXV, 
LXXXVI);  in  fact  we  found  an  unfinished 
one  showing  both  pecking  and  grinding. 
Adair54  says:  "The  hurling  stones  they  use 
at  present  were,  from  time  immemorial, 
rubbed  smooth  on  the  rocks  and  with 
prodigious  labor;"  but  such  objects  as 
pipes  and  pendants,  the  material  of  which 
is  softer,  were  evidently  worked  by  much 
the  same  methods  as  were  used  for  wood, 
with  the  aid  of  the  flint  knife,  scraper,  and 
drill,  together  with  convenient  chips  and 
flakes  of  flint.  Drilling  seems  to  have 
been  done  also  in  this  region  with  a  hollow 
point  of  cane  or  a  solid  one  of  wood,  used 
with  water  and  sharp  sand;  but  few  articles 
showing  this  kind  of  work  remained  on  the 
Cherokee  village-sites  to  indicate  that  they 
used  other  kinds  of  drills  besides  the  ordi- 
nary flint  type  (pi.  LXX,  e). 


INDIAN    NOTES 


BONEWORKING 


237 


TOOLS  FOR  BOXEWORK 
The  implements  used  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  awls,  fishhooks,  arrowpoints,  and 
other  objects  of  bone  and  antler,  seem  to 
have  been  the  same  as  those  employed  for 
shaping  wood  and  soft  stone;  namely,  the 
flint  knife  used  for  sawing  and  grooving, 
the  flint  scraper,  the  flint  drill,  and  chips 
and  flakes  of  the  same  material,  not  to 
mention  the  pieces  of  sandstone  which 
served  both  as  rasps  and  as  sandpaper. 
The  use  of  the  flint  knife  to  cut,  with  a 
sawing  motion,  a  groove  about  a  piece  of 
bone  preparatory  to  breaking  it  off,  is 
shown  in  pi.  LXXVIII,  b;  the  antler  arrow- 
point  seen  in  e  of  the  same  plate  shows 
traces  at  its  base  of  having  been  cut  around 
and  broken  off  in  the  same  way;  while  the 
antler  point  seen  in  fig.  35  shows  not  only 
the  striae  made  by  the  stone  scraper  with 
which  it  was  sharpened,  but  the  base 
hollowed  with  a  flint  drill  to  receive 
the  arrowshaft.  The  marks  of  the  gritty 
grinding  stones  with  which  they  were  fin- 
ished still  show  plainly  on  a,  d,  e,  of  pi. 
LXXV. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


238 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

IMPLEMENTS  FOR  SHELL-WORKING 

We  have  little  to  indicate  that  the  shell 

ornaments    so    abundantly    used    by    the 

Cherokee  were   extensively   manufactured 

by   them,   although   the  presence,  of  raw 

materials  in  the  form   of  numerous  cores 

of  conch-shells  from  which  the  whorls  had 

been  broken  off,  but  otherwise  unworked, 

would  seem  to  indicate  that  some  things  at 

least  were  made  at  home.    As  to  the  meth- 

ods and  the  tools  employed,  those  above 

described  as  being   effectual   for    shaping 

bone  and  antler,   especially   the  grinding 

stones,  would  doubtless  answer  for  shell  to 

a    considerable    extent.    We    learn    from 

Dumont"  that  the  Louisiana  Indians  made 

their  shell  ear-pins  from  "handsome  shells 

of  a  spiral  form  called  'burgaux'  by  rubbing 

them  a  long  time  on  hard  stones  and  thus 

giving  them  the  shape  of  a  nail  provided 

with  a  head."    With  regard  to  the  circular 

or  oval  shell  gorgets,   the  same  observer 

says: 

"The  savages  also  wear  at  the  neck  plates 
made  of  pieces  of  this  shell,  which  they  shape 
in  the  same  way  with  stones,  and  to  which  they 

INDIAN    NOTES 

SHELL-WORKING 

239 

;ive  a  round  or  oval  form  about  three  or  four 

nches  in  diameter.     They  then  perforate  them 
near  the  edge  by  means  of  fire  and  use  them  as 

ornaments." 

Dumont's  account  of  the  importance  of 

grinding  stones  in  making  the  ear-pins  is 

confirmed  by  an  unfinished  specimen  from 

Florida  in  the  Museum  of  the  American 

Indian,   Heye    Foundation,   a  conch   core 

about  which  two  grooves  have  been  cut  by 

grinding  with  the  rounded  edge  of  a  flat 

slab  of  a  gritty  stone  which  must  have  been 

about    half    an    inch    thick.    These    two 

grooves  outline  the  head  of  the  ear-pin;  the 

intention  evidently  was  to  deepen  one  of 

these  grooves  until  the  core  was  severed; 

then  to  grind  down  what  was  left  of  the 

shell  beyond  the  other  groove  to  make  the 

shaft  of  the  pin. 

POTTERS'  TOOLS 

The  wooden  stamping  paddles  (pi.  LXIH, 

a,  c)  used  by  the  Cherokee  in  marking  the 

surface  of  many  of  their  pottery  vessels 

have  of  course  disappeared  from  the  sites  on 

Tennessee  river,  and  they  do  not  seem  to 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

240 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

have  made  such  paddles  of  earthenware 

here  as  they  did  at  Nacoochee.56    Other 

wooden  implements  likewise  have  vanished; 

in  fact,  the  only  things  we  found  that  were 

used  by  the  ancient  potters  were  round, 

smooth  pebbles,  like  that  represented  in 

pi.    LXIII,    b,   showing   the  polish   of   long 

service,   used  for  smoothing  the  ware  as 

related  in  Section  X,  and  the  stone  mortars 

made  of   slabs  with   shallow,   cup-shaped 

hollows,    which    were    employed,     among 

other  things,  for  grinding  musselshells  for 

mixing  with  the  clay  of  which  the  pottery 

was   made.     Speaking   of   musselshells,    it 

should  be  noted  here  that  some  were  found 

whose  worn,  rounded  edges  suggested  that 

they  too  had  been  used  in  pottery-making. 

HOUSE  FURNISHINGS 

The  Cherokee  of  today  report  that  their 

ancestors  used  in  their  homes  large  mats  of 

split  cane  woven  in  the  same  way  as  their 

present  baskets,   which  are  made  in   the 

"twilled"     technique.     Such     mats     have 

been  found  in  caves57  in  or  near  the  old 

Cherokee  domain;  but  the  only  thing  in 

INDIAN    NOTES 

HOUSE   FURNISHINGS 


241 


FIG.  45. — Fragment  of  matting,  Mound  at  Lenoir  City. 
(Length,  2  in.) 


FIG.  46. — Cherokee  textile,  probably  part  of  a  bag;  from  an 
imprint  on  a  potsheid. 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


242 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


this  line  obtained  by  us  was  the  fragment 
of  ancient  matting  shown  in  fig.  45,  pre- 
served by  contact  with  the  large  copper 
ornament  found  in  a  very  ancient  grave  in 
a  mound  near  Lenoir  City  (the  connection 
of  which  with  the  Cherokee  is  doubtful), 
although  we  also  noted  imprints  of  matting 
over  certain  skeletons  in  Mound  2  on  Hiwas- 
see  island,  and  stains  due  to  contact  with 
matting  on  a  stone  pendant  from  the  same 
mound. 

Also  perhaps  to  be  included  under  the 
head  of  house  furnishings  were  bags  of 
fiber  cords,  used  as  containers  for  food  and 
various  belongings,  woven  more  or  less  as 
shown  in  fig.  46,  taken  from  a  cast  of  a  pot- 
sherd showing  textile  markings,  bags  of 
which  complete  ancient  examples  have 
been  found  'in  a  cave  in  Kentucky58  and 
which  are  still  made  and  used  by  a  number 
of  Central  Algonkian  and  Southern  Siouan 
tribes,  a  bag  from  the  Osage  in  the  collec- 
tion of  this  Museum  showing  the  same 
weave  exactly. 


INDIAN   NOTES 


243 

XII.  REMAINS  OF  THE  CHEROKEE: 
ORNAMENTS,  PIPES,  GAMES,  AND 
CEREMONIAL  OBJECTS 

IN  GENERAL 

FOR  personal  adornment  the  Chero- 
kee  used  a  very  large  number  of 

^w3     beads,    pendants,   and    ear-orna- 

ments,   made    of     marine    shells 
imported  through  intertribal  trade,  from  the 
Gulf  or  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  a  few  beads 
from  pearls  found  in  the  mussels  of  their 
own  rivers;  in  which  respects  they  differed 
little  from  most  of  the  tribes  in  the  district 
extending  from  the  Ohio  valley  to  the  Gulf, 
and  from  the  Mississippi  valley  eastward 
to  the  Appalachian  range.    Their  pendants 
made  of  animal  teeth  find  their  counter- 
parts throughout  most  of  the  continent,  as 
do  their  cylindrical  beads  made  by  cutting 
into  lengths  the  bones  of  birds. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

244 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

One  pendant  of  stone,  with   its  single 

perforation  near  one  end,   resembles   the 

Iroquois  style,  but  this  was  found  in  one  of 

the  earlier  graves  whose  Cherokee  origin  is 

doubtful;  and  the  only  native  copper  orna- 

ment found  is  probably  from  some  other 

people. 

In  the  way  of  pipes,  we  find  a  number  of 

forms  used  by  the  Cherokee  on  Tennessee 

river,  some  of  which  are  of  wide  distribu- 

tion, a  few  apparently  tribal;  few  if  any 

show   marked   resemblance   to   the   styles 

made  by  the  Iroquois  of  the  north,   the 

linguistic  relatives  of  the  Cherokee. 

In  using  the  discoidal  stones  characteris- 

tic   of    the    Kentucky-Tennessee    district 

and  vicinity,  the  Cherokee  do  not  seem  to 

have  differed  from  their  neighbors  —  these 

objects  seem  to  have  a  regional  rather  than 

a  tribal  distribution. 

ORNAMENTS 

BEADS 

Most  numerous  of  all  the  beads  found 

during  the  course  of  the  expedition  were 

those  made  of  the  shells  of  Olivella  mutica 

INDIAN    NOTES 

ORNAMENTS 


245 


(Say),  a  small  marine 
univalve  averaging 
perhaps  three-tenths 
or  four-tenths  of  an 
inch  in  length,  which 
were  prepared  for 
use  as  beads  by  grind- 
ing off  the  spire  with 
a  gritty  stone,  thus 

,„!-,•„„  FIG.  47. — Beads  of  Olivella 

making    an   aperture  she]1  as  arranged  on  a  gar_ 

•nrViirVi  r\<irmitf-ArI  tVipm     ment,      Hiwassee      island. 

wrncri  permitted  tnem   (Length  o{  largest>  Q  35  -m } 
to  be  strung.    These 

were  found  usually  near  the  necks  of  skele- 
tons as  if  constituting  simple  necklaces,  but 
in  one  instance  there  had  been  so  many 
strings  hung  about  the  neck  of 
a  child  that  the  beads  num- 
bered more  than  3000.  An- 
other child  had  evidently  been 
provided  with  a  garment  of 
some  sort,  apparently  a  kind 
of  jacket  reaching  from  breast 
to  knees,  which  in  front  had 
been  entirely  covered  with  such 
beads,  fastened  side  by  FIG.  48.— Bead  of 

shell,  Mainland  village- 
Side  m  regular  rOWS,  as     site.     (Length,  1.4  in.) 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


246 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


shown  in  fig.  47,  to  the  number  of  about 
2400.  An  adult  also  had  been  provided 
with  a  similar  garment,  reaching  from 
chin  to  waist,  but  the  bead  decoration  had 
been  applied  to  this  in  parts  only,  for  the 
Olivella  shells  totalled  only  about  1100; 
while  another  adult's  jacket  had  been  en- 
tirely covered  with  more  than  9000  of  these 
beads. 

Like  the  Olivella  beads  in  form,  but 
much  larger  in  size,  are  those  made  in  a 
similar  manner  from  the  shells  of  Oliva 
litterata  (Lamarck)  shown  in  fig.  48,  which 
measure  about  an  inch  or  a  little  more  in 
length,  and  were  used  in  the  form  of  single 
strings  as  necklaces,  while  smaller  even 
than  the  Olivella  were  a  few  tiny  univalve 
beads,  perhaps  Marginclla. 

The  foregoing  beads  are  entire  sea-shells, 
perforated  for  stringing,  but  there  is  also 
an  extensive  class  made  from  parts  of 
marine  shells,  most  of  them  from  the  core 
or  columella  of  large  conchs.  Such  cores, 
some  of  them  exceeding  9  in.  in  length, 
from  which  the  whorls  have  been  carefully 
chipped  away,  but  without  further  elabo- 


INDIAN    NOTES 


; 

!^^> 


HARRINGTON  —  CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


CHEROKEE  ORNAMENTS  OF  SHELL 

a-f,  Sites  near  Lenoir  City;  g-i,  Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton,  Tennessee. 
Length  of  e,  4.3  in. 


SHELL   BEADS 


247 


ration,  are  frequently  found  with  burials, 
probably  imported  from  the  Gulf  or  the 
Atlantic  coast  in  this  condition  as  material 
to  be  manufactured  into  beads  and  ear-pins 
at  home.  Some  of  these  long  cores  have 
been  perforated,  although  still  left  rough, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  one  shown  in  pi.  LXXX, 
e\  others  have  not  only  been  perforated, 
but  show  careful  smoothing  to  make  them 
into  long  beads,  as  in  d  of  the  same  plate. 
The  writer  has  still  to  discover  how  these 
long  perforations  of  small  caliber  were 
produced  with  primitive  tools;  that  the 
work  was  done  in  pre-European  days  can 
hardly  be  doubted,  for  the  grave  contain- 
ing the  longest  examples  of  such  drilling 
seemed  to  be  a  very  old  one — so  old,  in  fact, 
that  we  cannot  be  certain  .that  it  was  of 
Cherokee  origin.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  in  some  instances  the  drilling  had  not 
been  accurate,  but  had  broken  through  to 
the  surface  before  the  end  of  the  object 
was  reached,  in  which  case  the  core  had 
been  redrilled. 

Usually   these  cores  were  cut  up   into 
shorter    segments,    sometimes    more,    but 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


248 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


frequently  less,  than  an  inch  in  length,  and 
worked  down  into  beads  of  different  types, 
as  shown  in  fig.  49  and  in  pi.  LXXX,  a-c. 
A  similar  but  smaller  variety  of  shell  bead, 
resembling  wampum,  but  more  irregular  in 


FIG.  49. — Beads  of  shell  from  various  sites. 
(Length  of  largest,  0.6  in.) 

size  and  appearing  only  in  white  instead  of 
white  and  purple,  is  seen  in  fig.  50;  this  was 
quite  abundant,  particularly  at  the  Main- 
land village-site  near  Lenoir  City;  but  true 
disc-beads,  like  fig.  51,  were  not  common, 
appearing  mainly  at  Hiwassee  island.  The 
example  illustrated  measures  about  1.2  in. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


BONE    BEADS 

249 

in  diameter,  and  was  probably  made  from 
one  of  the  flatter  parts  of  a  conch-shell. 
As   before   indicated,    beads   were   also 
sometimes  made  of  pearls,  such  as  still  occur 
in   the  mussels  of  Tennessee  river,   both 
symmetrical    and    baroque    forms    being 

FIG.  SO.  —  Small  shell                   ^  gjjjj*^ 
beads  resembling  wam- 
pum, Mainland  village-         FIG.  51.  —  Disc-bead  of  shell, 
site.    (Length  of  largest,      Hiwassee  island.      (Diameter, 
0.3  in.)                                 1.1  inO 

utilized,  as  may  be  seen  in  fig.  52.    The 
stems  of  crinoid  fossils  were  occasionally  used 
on  account  of  their  naturally  bead-like  form. 
When  we  mention  the  fact  that  bone 

beads,  which  are  merely  cylindrical  seg- 
ments cut  from  hollow  bird-bones,  were 
found  on  the  Cherokee  sites,  our  list  of 
strictly  aboriginal  beads  is  completed,  so 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

250 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

far  as  the  results  of  our  work  are  concerned. 

Harlan  I.  Smith  thinks  that  such  objects, 

of  which  he  found  a  number  during  his 

excavations    at    May's    Lick,    Kentucky, 

were  used  in  constructing  snares  to  make 

the  noose  run  easily,69  but  the  writer  found  a 

number  of  bone  beads  in  at  least  two  cases 

near  the  necks  of  skeletons  during  the  work 

on  Tennessee  river,  in  such  a  position  that 

their   use   as   necklaces    could   hardly    be 

Jjm  fc^ 

/-^        f^Si       ^« 
vj       Vyjp     P       & 

FIG.  52.  —  Pearl  beads,  Mainland  village-site. 

(Diameter  of  largest,  0.4  in.) 

doubted.    A   plain   specimen   is  shown  in 

fig.  53,  and  an   ornate   one,    made   from 

the  lower  leg-bone  of  a  turkey-cock,  is  seen 

in  pi.  Lxxvin,  c. 

Such  were  the  beads  of  truly  aboriginal 

character;  but  there  were  also  found,  as 

before  related,  a  few  graves  of  the  colonial 

period   which   contained    beads    of    white 

men's  material  or  make.    Under  the  first 

head  may  be  mentioned   those  of  sheet- 

copper  of  European  origin  (fig.  54),  per- 

INDIAN    NOTES 

EUROPEAN    BEADS 


251 


haps  pieces  of  kettles,  which  vary  in  length 
from  0.2  in.  to  1.2  in.,  and  in  diameter 
from  0.1  in.  to  0.3  in.,  all  of  them  made  by 
cutting  out  an  approximate  rectangle  of 
sheet-copper  and  rolling  it  into  the  form  of 
a  hollow  cylinder.  These  were  often  strung 
in  alternation  with  beads  of  glass. 


FIG.  54.— Beads  of  sheet- 
copper,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island.     (Length  of  a,  0.5 
FIG.  53.— Bone  bead,  Hi-       in.) 
wassee    island.       (Length, 
1.6  in.) 

The  glass  beads,  of  European  origin,  are 
white,  dark-blue,  and  light-blue  in  color, 
with  a  few  purplish  ones  which  may  orig- 
inally have  been  red.  In  size  they  vary 
from  less  than  0.1  in.  to  more  than  0.2  in. 
in  diameter  for  the  more  or  less  globular 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


252 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

sorts,  which  are  in  the  majority.    The  few 

cylindrical  examples  measure  about  0.2  in. 

by  0.5  in.,  and  are  red  in  color,  with  four 

white,  longitudinal  stripes. 

PENDANTS 

As  might  have  been  expected,  most  of 

the  pendants  found  were  made  of  marine 

shells;  one  had  been  a  fine  circular  gorget 

with  scalloped  edges  on  whose  disintegrated 

surface  may  still  be  seen  traces  of  an  incised 

decoration,    the   "triskele"   (pi.  LXXXI,  a) 

frequently    found    in    eastern    Tennessee. 

Another  type  of  which  we  obtained  a  num- 

ber is  shown  in  b  of  the  same  plate;  these 

are  always  plain. 

We  were  not  successful  in  procuring  any 

examples  of  the  mask  type  of  shell  gorget, 

also  well  known,  from  this  region,  but  a 

number  of  good  specimens  of  these  were 

found  by  Messrs  Barnes  and  Benham  dur- 

ing their  digging  on  Hiwassee  island,  some 

of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  Lieutenant 

Benham's   collection,   along  with   a   well- 

preserved  specimen  of  the  "triskele"  gorget. 

Whatever  other  people  or  peoples  may 

INDIAN   NOTES 

PENDANTS 


253 


also  have  used  the  triskele,  mask,  and  rat- 
tlesnake types  of  shell  gorgets,  the  writer  is 
convinced  that  the  Cherokee  owned  and 
wore  many  of  them,  whether  they  actually 
made  them  or  not.  His  reason  for  this 
belief  lies  in  the  fact  that  not  only  were 
they  discovered  in  Cherokee  graves  by 
Messrs  Barnes  and  Benham  but  that  Mr 
Moore  found  them  associated  with  a  series 
of  artifacts,  which  the  writer  from  his  own 
studies  considers  typically  Cherokee,  on  a 
site  near  Citico  creek60  in  the  vicinity  of 
Chattanooga;  and  MacCurdy61  reports  them 
so  associated  at  the  Brakebill  mound  near 
Knoxville. 

\Yorn  with  a  string  of  sheet-copper  and 
glass  beads  was  the  circular,  plain,  shell 
gorget  seen  in  pi.  LXXXH,  b,  found  with 
the  remains  of  a  child  at  Lenoir  or  BusselTs 
island,  as  was  the  pendant  (a  of  the  same 
plate)  made  from  part  of  a  marine  bivalve 
shell;  while  on  Hiwassee  island  were  un- 
earthed a  number  of  pendants  like  g,  made 
from  whole  but  diminutive  conchs.  When 
we  mention  the  fact  that  small,  flat  frag- 
ments of  conch-shell,  not  an  inch  in 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


254 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


diameter,  were  perforated  near  the  edge  and 
used  as  pendants,  and  that  some  beads,  such 
as  that  shown  in  pi.  LXXX,  b,  received 


FIG.  56. — Pendant  made  FIG.  57. — Carved  pendant 
of  a  bear's  tooth,  Mainland  of  stone,  Hiwassee  island, 
village-site.  (Length,  2  in.)  (Length,  4.2  in.) 


transverse  perforations  and  were  so  used, 
we  have  completed  our  list  of  shell  pen- 
dants, unless  we  include  the  shell  object 


INDIAN    NOTES 


HARRINGTON— CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PL.    LXXXIII 


ORNAMENT  OF  NATIVE  COPPER.   MOUND  ON   BUSSELL  PLACE. 

LENOIR  CITY.  TENNESSEE 

Greatest  diameter,  5.2  in. 


HARRINGTON — CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PIPES  OF  THE  CHEROKEE 

a,  Of  sandstone,  Mainland  Village-site,  Lenoir  City;   b,   Of  earthenware, 
Hiwassee  island,  near  Dayton,  Tennessee.     Length  of  b,  3.3  in. 


COPPER    GORGET 


255 


shown  in  fig.  55,  which  may  have  been  a 
pendant  in  process  of  manufacture. 

Among  pendants  of  materials  other  than 
shell  may  be  mentioned  two  perforated 
bear-teeth,  of  which  one  is  shown  in  fig.  56, 
found  protruding  from  under  the  chin  of  a 
child's  skeleton  at  the  Mainland  village- 
site  near  Lenoir  City,  and  the  carved  flat 
specimen  of  gray,  slaty  stone,  seen  in 
fig.  57,  its  single  perforation  near  one  end, 
reminiscent  of  Iroquois  forms.  This  might 
have  been  taken  as  another  connecting  link 
between  the  Cherokee  and  the  Iroquois, 
had  it  not  been  found  in  one  of  the  very  old 
graves  in  Mound  2  on  Hiwassee  island, 
whose  connection  with  the  Cherokee  is  not 
certain.  Still  more  dubious  is  the  mean- 
ing of  the  incised  design  which  adorns  it. 

Doubtful  also  in  its  connection  with  the 
Cherokee  is  the  five-inch  square  gorget  of 
native  copper  (pi.  LXXXIH)  found  on  the 
breast  of  a  barely  traceable  skeleton,  appar- 
ently very  ancient,  the  sole  occupant  of 
Mound  3  on  the  Bussell  place  at  Lenoir 
City.  This  ornament,  which  is  provided 
with  a  central  perforation,  has  for  its  only 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


256 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

decoration    a    border   of   small    embossed 

nodes.    As  before  mentioned,  it  resembles 

much  more  the  work  of  a  tribe  living  far- 

ther down  Tennessee  river  (for  instance,  at 

the    Bennett    place    below    Chattanooga, 

explored  by  Moore62),  which  seems  to  have 

made    a    speciality    of    embossed    native 

copper  ornaments,  than  anything  we  know 

H    § 

FIG.  55.—  Unfinished  ob-          FIG.    58.—  Pendant     or 
ject    of    shell,   perhaps   a       jingler  of  sheet-copper  with 
pendant,  Mainland  village-       pearl  bead  attached,  Lenoir 
site.    (Length,  0.8  in.)               or  Bussell's  island.  (Length, 
0.7  in.) 

to   be  of   Cherokee  origin.    Perhaps   the 

Cherokee,  like  their  relatives  the  Iroquois, 

took  little  interest  in  objects  made  of  this 

material.    Of  course,  if  we  decide  that  the 

mound-building  Indians  who  followed  the 

"Round  Grave  people"  were  the  ancestors 

of  the  Cherokee,  this  copper  gorget  is  easily 

explained  by  the  same  system  of  intertribal 

INDIAN   NOTES 

EAR-ORNAMENTS 

257 

trade  through  which  these  inland  people 

acquired  so  many  marine  shells. 

The  only  pendants  of  non-native  mate- 

rials found  by  us  were  a  number  of  "jing- 

lers"  of  sheet-copper  cut   and   rolled   into 

conical  form  in  much  the  same  manner  as 

that  by  which  the  cylindrical  beads  were 

made.    One  of  these,  tipped  with  a  pearl 

bead,  is  shown  in  fig.  58. 

EAR-ORNAMENTS 

Quite  a  number  of  pairs  of  the  shell 

objects    usually    classified    as    "hair-pins" 

(pi.  LXXXH,  e,  f,  h,  i)  were  discovered  with 

burials,  usually  lying  one  at  each  side  of 

the  skull  at  about  the  point  where  the  lobes 

of  the  ears  had  been,  with  the  rounded 

heads  turned   forward.     Mr   Moore63   has 

identified  these  objects  as  ear-ornaments 

rather  than  "hair-pins,"  and  in  this  the 

writer  agrees  with  him,  for  not  only  are 

they  commonly  found  as  stated,  but  fre- 

quently are  provided  with  a  slight  groove 

just  back  of  the  head  (pi.  LXXXH,  K)  for 

the  reception  of  the  ear-lobe,  the  perfora- 

tion in  which  must  necessarily  have  been 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

258 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

large,  while  others  show  a  mark  or  stain  at 

the  same  place  caused  by  the  decay  of  the 

flesh  after  burial.    This  idea  of  the  use  of 

the  shell  pins  finds  historical  support  also, 

for  Du  Pratz,64  speaking  of  the  Louisiana 

Indians,  says,  "The  women  adorn  them- 

selves with  ear-ornaments  made  of  the  core 

of  a  large  shell  called  'burgo,'  of  which  I 

have    spoken.    This    ear-ornament    is    as 

large  as  the  little  finger  and  at  least  as 

long.    They  have  a  hole  in  the  lower  part 

of  each   ear  large  enough   to   insert   this 

ornament.    It  has  a  head  a  little  larger 

than    the   rest,    which    prevents    it    from 

falling  out."     Dumont65  adds  some  inter- 

esting details  in  his  more  extended  account, 

of  which  the  following  is  a  translation: 

"One  finds  also  on  the  sea  shore  handsome 

shells  of  spiral  form  called  burgaux     ...     it 
is  of  these  burgaux  that  the  savage  women  make 
their  ear-pendants.     For  this  they  take  the  tip 
which  they  rub  a  long  time  on  hard  stones, 
thus  giving  it  the  form  of  a  nail  provided  with 
a  head;  so  when  they  put  the  ornaments  in  their 
ears  they  are  stopped  (from  slipping  through) 
by  this  species  of  pivot,  as  these  natives  have 
holes  in  their  ears  much  larger  than  those  of 

INDIAN    NOTES 

PAINTS 

259 

our  French  women;  so  much  so  that  one  could 

pass  his  thumb  through,  however  large." 

Another  type  of  ear-plug  of  shell  with 

holes   for   the   attachment   of   feathers   or 

other  decorations  is  seen  in  pi.  LXXXII,  c,  d. 

Some  of  the  pendants  before  mentioned 

may  well  have  been  worn  suspended  from 

the  ears,  particularly  the  triangular  form 

of  the  shell  of  a  scallop-like  marine  bivalve 

(pi.  LXXXII,  a)  ,  and  the  conical  sheet-copper 

examples  of  the  historic  period  like  fig.  58, 

some  of  them  considerably  larger  than  the 

example  shown,  one  pair,  measuring  about 

1.5  in.  long  and   0.8   in.   across   the  base, 

being  found  at  the  sides  of  a  child's  skull 

on  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island. 

PAINTS 

An  account  of  the  personal  adornment 

used  by  these  people  would  not  be  com- 

plete without  a  mention  of  paint,  although 

we  found  nothing  of  this  nature  that  differs 

from  what  might  occur  in  many  parts  of 

the  country,  regardless  of  tribe  or  culture. 

Judging  by  our  collection,   the  Cherokee 

obtained  their  red  by  grinding  or  scratch- 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

260 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

ing  hematite  or  limonite  iron  ore  (fig.  59)  , 
their  black  from  a  kind  of  impure  graphite, 
and   their  white  and  yellow  by  scraping 
clay-stones   of    the   shade   desired.    More 
easily  obtained,  of  course,  was  black  from 
soot,    and   white,    yellow,    and   red   from 
clays  of  these  colors;  but  that  these  were 
actually  employed  we  have  not  objective 
evidence. 

FIG.  59.  —  Fragment  of  limonite  scraped  for  paint,  Lenoir 
or  Bussell's  island.     (Length,  3.6  in.) 

PIPES 

We  were  able  to  find  only  two  complete 
pipes,   both   of   which   are   shown   in   pi. 
LXXXIV,  a  being  of  fine-grained  sandstone, 
and  b  of  pottery.    The  type  is  simple,  yet 
it  seems  very  characteristic  of  the  Chero- 
kee culture,  and  so  far  as  the  writer  can 
discover,  has  been  found  only  within  their 

INDIAN    NOTES 

STONE    PIPES 


261 


territory.  MacCurdy65  illustrates  a  pipe 
resembling  a,  from  the  Brakebill  mound  in 
Knox  County,  and  another,  still  more  like 
it,  from  the  McBee  mound  in  Jefferson 


FIG.  60. — Cherokee  pipe  of  earthenware,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island.     (Length,  2.8  in.) 

county,  Tennessee,  both  well  within  the 
old  Cherokee  domain.  Similar  specimens 
were  obtained  by  the  expedition  of  this 
Museum  at  the  Nacoochee  mound67  in 
northeastern  Georgia,  and  scattering  exam- 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


262 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


pies  have  been  found  in  Kentucky  and 
North  Carolina.  The  fragmentary  pipe 
shown  in  fig.  60  is  somewhat  similar,  but 
has  less  character;  while  the  style  shown 
in  fig.  61,  of  which  we  found  only  frag- 


FIG.  61. — Cherokee  pipe  of  earthenware,  Lenoir  or 
Bussell's  island.    (Length,  1.7  in.) 

ments,  has  more  character,  and  this  too 
may  be  considered  a  distinctively  Cherokee 
form.  Moore  found  a  number  of  good 
specimens  of  this  in  the  extensive  cemetery 
explored  by  him  near  Citico  creek  above 
Chattanooga,  along  with  what,  as  before 


INDIAN   NOTES 


EARTHENWARE    PIPES 

263 

mentioned,  the  writer  regards  as  a  typically 
Cherokee  series  of  artifacts;   MacCurdy68 
figures  it  from  the  Lisle  mound  in  Greene 

\        ~J~— 

V_     D 

« 

b 

FIG.  62.  —  Pipe  forms  used  by  the  Cherokee:  a,  McBee 
mound,  Tenn.  (after  MacCurdy);   4,  Xacoochee  mound, 
Georgia. 

county,  Tennessee,  also  in  Cherokee  terri- 
tory, and  a   number  were    found  in  the 
Nacoochee  mound  in  Georgia.69 
The  writer  regards  this  type  as  repre- 
senting in  a  conventional  way  a  celt  in  its 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


wooden  handle,  the  bowl  being  the  blade 
and  the  stem  portion  of  the  pipe  (in  which 
a  reed  stem  was  doubtless  fitted)  the  handle 
through  which  the  point  of  the  celt  seems 
to  pass. 

Not  found  by  us,  but  belonging  to  Chero- 
kee culture  apparently,  is  a  type  like  that 
in  pi.  LXXXIV,  a,  in  most  respects,  but 
with  the  mouth  expanded  into  the  form 
of  a  disc  (fig.  62,  a);  this  is  illustrated  by 
both  Moore  and  MacCurdy,  and  also 
appears  in  the  Nacoochee  collection;  and 
this  type,  and  this  only,  seems  to  show 
some  connection  with  northern  Iroquois 
forms,  the  pipe  bowl  surmounted  by  a 
disc  (fig.  61,  a)  occurring  occasionally  in 
western  New  York  and  in  eastern  Ontario. 
The  writer  has  personally  found  such  pipes 
on  an  Erie  village-site  and  cemetery  near 
Ripley,  New  York,  a  site  subsequently 
more  fully  examined  by  Parker.70 

Another  form  (fig.  62,  b),  with  pointed 
base,  which  seems  to  be  either  the  effigy  of 
an  animal-claw  or  of  a  bird's  beak,  appears 
on  Cherokee  sites,  but  seems  to  have  a 
regional  rather  than  a  tribal  distribution. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


GAMES 

265 

extending  up  across  Kentucky  into  Ohio. 

The  fanciful  earthen  pipe-forms  so  abun- 

dant at  Nacoochee  seldom  appear  on  the 

Cherokee  village-sites  on  Tennessee  river. 

GAMES 

Practically  the  only  objects  found  which 

might  have  been  used  as  games  were  the 

discoidal  stones  of  varying  types,  examples 

of  which  may  be  seen  in  pi.  LXXXV  and 

LXXXVI,  of  which  a  of  the  former  plate  is 

a   thick,   biconcave  form  of  light-colored 

granitic  stone,  from  a  grave  in  Mound  2  on 

Hiwassee    island;    b    a    typical,    thinner 

"bicave"  of  white  quartz  with  yellow  mark- 

ings,  from   the  surface  of   the  Mainland 

village-site  near  Lenoir  City;  while  in  the 

second  plate  (LXXXVI)  both  specimens  are 

slightly  convex  on  both  sides,  and  both 

came  from  the  Great  Midden  at  Lenoir  or 

BusselPs   island.     The  larger   is   of   light- 

gray    limestone,    the    smaller    of    pinkish 

conglomerate.     Similar  examples  appeared 

also  on  Hiwassee  island,  hence  it  seems 

probable  that  this  type  was  quite  general. 

An  unusual  discoidal,  purchased  at  Lenoir 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

266 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

City,  had  been  found  near  the  Mainland 

village-site,  an  unfinished  "bicave"   show- 

ing distinctly  the  application  of  both  peck- 

ing and  grinding. 

That  these  were  used  in  the  game  of 

"chunkey,"  the  Southeastern  form  of  the 

"hoop-and-pole"  game  so  widespread  among 

North  American  tribes,  there  can  be  little 

doubt.    Mooney71  says  of  this  game: 

"It  was  played  with  a  stone  disk  and  a  pole 

which  had  a  crook  at  one  end.     The  disk  was 

rolled  ahead  and  the  object  was  to  slide  the 

pole  after  it  in  such  a  way  that  the  disk  would 

rest  in  the  curve  of  the  crook  when  both  came 

to  a  stop.     It  was  usually  played  in  the  larger 

towns  upon  a  piece  of  ground  regularly  prepared 

for   the   purpose,   called   by   the   traders   the 

'chunkey  yard'  or  'chunk  yard,'  adjoining  the 

town  square,  or  central  plaza,  in  which  the 

most  important  public  ceremonies  were  per- 

formed." 

More  definite  details  as  applied  to  the 

Cherokee  of  what  is  now  eastern  Tennessee 

are  furnished  by  Lieutenant  Timberlake,72 

who    made    his    observations    on    Little 

Tennessee  river  in  March,  1762.    He  says: 

"At     .     .     .     Chote     ...     the  Indians 

resolved  to  amuse  themselves  with  a  game  they 

INDIAN   NOTES 

CHUNKEY 


267 


call  nettecawaw;  which  I  can  give  no  other 
description  of,  than  that  each  player  having  a 
pole  about  ten  feet  long,  with  several  marks  or 
divisions,  one  of  them  bowls  a  round  stone, 
with  one  flat  side  and  the  other  convex,  on  which 
the  players  all  dart  their  poles  after  it,  and 
[when  stone  and  poles  come  to  rest]  the  nearest 
counts  according  to  the  vicinity  of  the  bowl  to 
the  marks  on  his  pole." 


FIG.  63. — Gaming  stones:  a,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's  island; 
b,  Hiwassee  island.     (Diameter  of  a,  1.9  in.) 

Undoubtedly  the  form  described,  flat  on 
one  side  and  convex  on  the  other,  was 
only  one  of  several  types  used. 

That  this  game  was  by  no  means  confined 
to  the  Cherokee,  but  was  widely  distrib- 
uted among  the  Southeastern  tribes,  is 
evidenced  not  only  by  the  accounts  of 
early  travelers,  some  of  which  are  quoted 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


268 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


by  Jones,73  but  also  by  the  distribution  of 
discoidal  stones  as  noted  by  archeologists. 
As  Fowke74  says,  "The  finest  specimens  in 
greatest  numbers  come  from  the  states 
south  of  the  Ohio  river  and  from  Arkansas 
eastward  to  the  Atlantic,"  and  this  terri- 
tory was  of  course  occupied  by  a  number 
of  distinct  peoples. 

Too  small  to  roll 
in  the  game  above 
mentioned  is  the  lit- 
tle discoidal  of  lime- 
stone shown  in  fig.  63. 
a:  it  may,  however, 
have  been  used  in  some 
kind  of  dice  game, 
for  one  side  is  marked 
with  an  incised  cross. 
Similarly  marked,  and 
perhaps  used  for  a  similar  purpose,  is  the 
flat  oblong  stone  seen  in  b  of  the  same 
figure;  and  many  small  discs,  chipped  and 
ground  from  potsherds,  may  have  served 
as  game  counters,  some  of  these  being  per- 
forated as  shown  in  fig.  64. 


FIG.  64. — Perforated  disc 
of  pottery,  Lenoir  or  Bus- 
sell's  island.  (Diameter, 
1.1  in.) 


INDIAN    NOTES 


OF    UNKNOWN    USE 

269 

CEREMONIAL  OBJECTS 

Little  was  found   that  could  be  called 

"ceremonial,"   unless   the   group   of  three 

small,      sharp,      awl-like     implements    of 

bone  found  with  a  burial  at  the  large  vil- 

lage-site   on    Hiwassee   island    may    have 

formed  part  of  a  ceremonial  "scratcher" 

or  scarifier  such  as  is  still  used  ritualisti- 

cally  to  draw  blood  from  the    arms  and 

backs  of  athletes  about  to  take  part  in  the 

ball-play  among  the  modern  Cherokee,  and 

is  still  made  of  similar  sharpened  splinters 

of  bone  mounted  in  the  quill  of  an  eagle- 

feather. 

OBJECTS  OF  UNKNOWN  USE 

Among    the   objects    of    unknown    use, 

whose  connection  with  the  Cherokee  can 

hardly    be    doubted,    are    the    perforated 

musselshells  of  which  an  example  appears 

in  fig.  65.     Farther  north  such  objects,  of 

larger   size,   seem   to   have  been  used  as 

hoes,75  but  those  found  by  our  expedition 

were  not  only  too  small  for  such  purpose, 

but  they  do  not  show  signs  of  wear.     They 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

270 


could,  however,  have  been  strung  together 
to  form  rattles,  or  they  might  even  have 
served  as  sinkers. 

Also  unknown  as  to  use  is  the  object  of 
steatite  shown  in  fig.  66,  which  seems  to  be 
a  variant  of  the  class  of  problematical 


FIG.  65. — Perforated  musselshe'.l,  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
island.     (Length,  3.2  in.) 

objects  known  as  "boat-stones,"  but  in 
this  case  the  resemblance  to  a  boat  or  canoe 
is  so  slight  that  the  attempt  to  explain  it  in 
the  light  of  the  Iroquois  custom  of  using 
tiny  model  boats  as  charms  against  dis- 
aster by  water  will  hardly  avail.  Its  con- 
nection with  Cherokee  culture  is  also 


INDIAN    NOTES 


OF    UNKNOWN    USE 

271 

doubtful,  as  it  was  picked  up  on  the  surface 
of    the   nearly    obliterated    Mound    8    on 
Hiwassee  island,   and   its  original   source 
could  not  be  determined. 
A   third   class   of  objects  whose  use  is 
problematical  includes  large  bone  tubes,  of 

FIG.  66.  —  "Boat-stone"  of  steatite,  Hiwassee  island. 
(Length,  2  in.) 

which  we  obtained  several  fragmentary 
examples.  The  largest  appears  to  be  made 
from  a  bear  tibia  with  the  proximal  joint 
cut  off,  the  spongy  material  below  it 
removed  and  the  edges  ground  thin  with 
the  bevel  inward,  while  the  outside  shows 
striations  due  to  smoothing  with  a  gritty 
stone.  Another  specimen  of  this  class  had 
been  highly  polished. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

272 

XIII.    SUMMARY 

S 

UMMARIZING  the  results  of  our 
explorations,    we   find    that    the 

district    along    Tennessee    river 

between    Lenoir    City    at     the 

mouth  of  the  Little  Tennessee  and  Hiwassee 

island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hiwassee,  is  un- 

commonly rich  in  ancient  mounds,  and  shows 

the  sites  of  many  aboriginal  settlements, 

some  of  them  large  and  long  inhabited. 

SITES  EXPLORED 

Of  these  remains  we  were  able  to  explore 

three  mounds  on  the  Bussell  place  near 

Lenoir 

City  in  Loudon  county,  and  par- 

dally 

examine     two     village-sites     with 

accompanying    cemeteries    on    the    same 

plantation;    one    mound    at    the    Upper 

Hampton  place  near  Rhea  Springs  in  Rhea 

county 

was  also  examined;  while  at  Hiwas- 

see  island,  in  Meigs  county,  we  completely 

INDIAN   NOTES 

TYPES   OF  MOUNDS 

273 

excavated    two     mounds     and     partially 

explored  two  others,  besides  devoting  a  few 

days'  digging  to  the  large  village-site  at 

the  upper  end  of  the  island. 

MOUNDS 

Most  of  the  mounds  visited  or  explored 

in  this  district  were  of  the  blunt  conical 

type,  with  circular  or  oval  base,  although 

many  were  more  or  less  hemispherical  in 

form,  in  some  cases,  at  least,  due  to  cultiva- 

tion and  erosion;  and  a  few  large,  flat- 

topped  pyramids,  notably  the  great  mound 

at    the    head    of    Hiwassee    island,    were 

observed. 

The  first  two  types  seem  to  have  been 

built  solely  for  mortuary  purposes,  in  some 

cases  being  erected  over  a  single  burial, 

other  interments  being  often  added  later, 

while  in  one  instance  a  burial  mound  had 

been  increased  in  height  at  least  twice  and 

new  burials  added  each  time.     Still  another 

was   found   which   had   been   enlarged   in 

diameter  and  new  interments  made  in  the 

added  portion,  but  as  this  mound  had  been 

long  under  cultivation,  we  were  unable  to 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

274 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


determine  whether  the  height  also  had 
been  increased  at  the  same  time.  We 
failed  to  find  any  veritable  stone  graves  in 
any  of  the  mounds  we  investigated, 
although  several  small,  circular  cists  con- 
taming  "bone  burials"  were  encountered; 
nevertheless,  Mr  Moore76  found  a  few  such 
graves  in  certain  of  the  mounds  of  the 
region,  and  their  presence  in  some  others 
not  yet  explored  may  be  surmised  from 
slabs  of  limestone  lying  on  the  surface. 
So  far  as  has  thus  far  appeared  from  the 
explorations  in  these  mounds  conducted  by 
Mr  Moore  and  by  our  expedition,  they  all 
seem  to  belong  to  about  the  same  period— 
quite  an  early  one — and  to  have  been 
made  by  the  same  people,  so  far  as  we  can 
determine  from  the  few  artifacts  the  orig- 
inal builders  placed-  with  their  dead.  Some 
of  them,  however,  contain,  besides  the 
original  burials,  others  of  an  obviously 
later  period,  and  these  are  sometimes 
better  provided  with  mortuary  offerings. 

None  of  the  large  platform  mounds  was 
opened  by  us,  but  they  were  evidently 
domiciliary — great  elevated  platforms  upon 


INDIAN  NOTES 


VILLAGE-SITES 

275 

which   stood   the   "town   house"   so   well 

described  by  Bartram,77  who  found  these 

dome-shaped    assembly    halls,    sometimes 

crowning    the    tops    of   artificial   mounds, 

still  in  use  in  the  eighteenth  century  among 

the    Cherokee    and    other    Southeastern 

tribes.     Some  may  contain  burials  also,  as 

did  the  great  town-house  mound  at  Nacoo- 

chee,    and    one    would    expect  such  when 

found  to  be  of  important  people  accom- 

panied with  mortuary  deposits  of   interest. 

The  exploration  of  some  of  these  mounds  is 

needed  if  we  are  to  determine  the  identity 

of    their   builders  or    the  period   of  their 

erection.    The   writer   has   been    told   by 

several    Cherokee    that    such    town-house 

mounds  were  built  by  their  ancestors,  yet 

Bartram78    claims    that    in    his   day   the 

Cherokee,  while  using  these  mounds,  denied 

all  knowledge  of  their  builders. 

VILLAGE-SITES 

All  of  the  three  village-sites  that  were 

partially  explored  showed  heavy  deposits  of 

relic-bearing  black  soil  containing  midden 

refuse,  in  one  case,  that  of  Lenoir  or  Bus- 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

276 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

sell's  island,  taking  the  form  of  a  "Great 

Midden"  4|  ft.  to  6£  ft.  deep  and  about 

400   ft.    long.    None   of    these   sites   was 

explored    in    a    satisfactory    manner,    but 

enough  was  accomplished   to  reveal  ash- 

beds    and    clay    house-floors    at    different 

levels,  and  most  important  of  all  the  fact 

that  each  of  the  three  village-sites  inves- 

tigated had  been  occupied  by  at  least  two 

and  perhaps  three  different  cultures.    There 

were  not,  as  a  rule,  however,  any  distinctly 

marked    strata:    the   fact  was  determined 

merely    by    the    difference    in    character 

between  the  artifacts  found  in  the  lower 

levels  of  the  deposits  and  those  appearing 

in  the  upper. 

THE  EARLIEST  CULTURE 

We  found  one  culture  whose  traces,  lying 

at  the  bottom  of  every  deposit  in  which 

they  appeared  at  all,  seemed  to  antedate 

all    the   others-^a    culture    to    which    we 

applied    the    name    "Round    Grave"    on 

account   of   the  characteristic   method   of 

burial,  which  was  to  fold  the  corpse  into 

very  small  compass,  with  the  chin  between 

INDIAN   NOTES 

EARLIEST    CULTURE 


277 


the  knees,  and  then  to  force  it  into  a  cir- 
cular, well-like  hole  of  'small  diameter. 
These  "Round  Grave  people"  used  numer- 
ous round  and  oblong  vessels  of  steatite, 
egg-shaped  pottery  vessels  with  pointed 
bottoms  and  but  little  attempt  at  decora- 
tion except  by  impressions  of  a  very  unusual 
sort  of  fabric  made  of  reeds  and  fiber  cords, 
rude  bone  awls,  arrowpoints  of  many 
forms,  the  majority  of  them  stemmed,  fine 
two-holed  gorgets,  bracers  made  of  bone, 
and  pendants  of  perforated  animal-teeth. 
We  found  none  of  their  axes  in  situ,  but 
the  writer  suspects  that  the  grooved  axes 
found  in  this  district,  which  are  certainly 
not  Cherokee,  may  be  attributed  to  these 
people. 

This  series  of  artifacts  connects  the 
"Round  Grave  people"  with  the  Algonkian 
culture  of  the  middle  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
points  to  decided  influence  if  not  to  actual 
relationship.  In  eastern  Tennessee  we 
found  unmistakable  evidences  of  the  "  Round 
Grave"  culture  at  both  Lenoir  or  Bussell's 
Island  and  on  Hiwassee  island,  while  Mr 
Moore  found  another  site,  apparently 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


278 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

of  the  same  people,  on  Rodger's  island  in 

the  Tennessee  river  in  Alabama. 

The  mere  use  of  circular  graves  of  small 

diameter  cannot  be  considered  per  se  a  sign 

of  the  presence  of  this  culture,  however, 

nor  of  great  antiquity,  for  Moore79  found 

on  the  Hampton  place  near  Chattanooga 

a  number  of  such  "grave  pits"  associated 

with  an  entirely  different  set  of  artifacts, 

many  of  which  were  trade  objects  of  the 

colonial    period.    These    graves     differed 

from  ours,  however,  in  that  the  skeletons 

were  often  placed  more  or  less  vertically  in 

them  instead  of  laid  flat,  and  that  many 

showed  near  the  surface  a  burned  layer 

implying  the  ceremonial  use  of  fire,  of  which 

custom  we  found  no  trace  connected  with 

the  circular  graves. 

THE  SECOND  CULTURE 

Following   the   "Round   Grave   people" 

came  another,  the  builders  of  most  of  the 

burial  mounds,  whose  culture  resembled  in 

many  ways  that  of  the  Cherokee,  the  latest 

aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  region,  but 

differed  from  it  just  enough  to  make  their 

INDIAN   NOTES 

SECOND    CULTURE 


279 


relationship  doubtful;  while  resembling  the 
preceding  culture  only  in  the  use  of  the 
curious  mat-like  fabric  made  of  rushes  and 
cords. 

Like  the  Cherokee,  these  second  people 
used  the  triangular  type  of  flint  arrowpoint 
and  the  celt  form  of  axe  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  styles,  their  burials  were  loosely  flexed 
or  sometimes  extended,  and  they  employed 
many  beads  and  other  ornaments  made 
from  ocean  shells  derived  by  intertribal 
trade  from  the  Gulf  or  the  Atlantic  coast. 

Theh*  pottery,  however,  although  some- 
what similar,  was  for  the  greater  part 
simpler  and  plainer  than  that  of  the  known 
Cherokee;  moreover  they  seem  to  have 
possessed  also  a  kind  of  polychrome  ware 
not  seen  in  the  later  Cherokee  deposits, 
very  well  made  vessels  of  yellow  or  white 
decorated  with  striking  painted  designs  in 
red  or  black.  They  also  differed  from  the 
known  Cherokee  in  having  ornaments  of 
native  copper  pounded  out  thin,  with 
embossed  designs;  in  the  custom,  seen  in  a 
number  of  burials,  of  partially  burning  the 
corpses  of  their  dead,  after  laying  them  in 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


280 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


the  grave,  by  covering  them  with  hot  coals 
or  heated  clay,  and  in  the  occasional  use  of 
stone  graves. 

Moore80  explored  a  burial  mound  of  this 
people  on  the  Bennett  place  below  Chatta- 
nooga, with  typical  artifacts  and  charred 
skeletons,  and  we  noted  their  traces  not 
only  on  the  Lenoir  City  sites  but  at  the 
Upper  Hampton  place  and  on  Hiwassee 
island.  It  is  still  doubtful  in  the  writer's 
mind  whether  they  should  be  considered  the 
ancestors  or  relatives  of  the  Cherokee,  or 
whether  their  relationships,  on  account  of 
the  polychrome  pottery  and  thin  copper 
ornaments,  are  more  with  the  culture,  well 
developed  on  Cumberland  river  in  central 
Tennessee,  which  Mr  Myer  regards  as 
Siouan.  The  fact  that  later  burials  at 
Hiwassee  island  seem  to  bridge  the  gap  and 
merge  imperceptibly  into  those  we  know  to 
be  Cherokee,  would  incline  one  toward 
the  former  theory. 

In  connection  with  our  "second  culture" 
it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  bottom 
of  the  Nacoochee  mound81  in  Georgia  were 
found  stone  graves,  a  copper  axe,  and  an 


INDIAN     NOTES 


CHEROKEE    CULTURE 

281 

effigy  bottle  of  polychrome  ware  identical 

with    the    "Siouan"    pottery    of    central 

Tennessee.     These    were    in    one    of    the 

small    original    mounds    upon    which    the 

later   Cherokee   structure  was   built,   and 

their  connection  with  Cherokee  culture  is 

doubtful. 

The  finding  of  a  lot  of  simple  pottery 

somewhat  suggesting  that  of  the  Cherokee, 

but    much    more    reminiscent    of    modern 

Creek  ware,  in  the  addition  to  Mound  2  on 

Hiwassee  island,  may  represent  still  another 

culture    succeeding    the    original    mound- 

building  Indians  —  in  fact,  may  be  relics  of 

the  Creek  settlement  which  the  Cherokee, 

according  to  their  legend,  quoted  by  Hay- 

wood,82  found  at  the  mouth  of  Hiwassee 

river  when  they  arrived  in  the  Tennessee 

valley. 

THE  CHEROKEE  CULTURE 

Last  of  the  aboriginal  peoples  on  this 

part  of  Tennessee  river  were  the  Cherokee, 

and    these  were   the   makers   of   most    of 

the  artifacts  collected  by  our  expedition. 

Burials    we   know    to    be   Cherokee    were 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

282 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


found  in  considerable  numbers,  along  with 
older  ones,  in  mounds  built  by  the  people 
of  the  second  culture,  who  may  or  may 
not  have  been  their  ancestors;  and  while 
we  explored  no  mounds  that  did  not  date 
back  to  this  earlier  period,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  later  Cherokee  of  this  region  built 
some  tumuli  and  enlarged  others  that  had 
been  constructed  by  their  predecessors. 

Comparing  the  Cherokee  artifacts  found 
by  us  on  upper  Tennessee  river  with  those 
collected  by  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  east 
of  the  mountains  at  the  Nacoochee  mound 
in  northeastern  Georgia,  we  find  a  very 
strong  similarity,  but  at  the  same  time  cer- 
tain differences  which  might  be  expected 
even  in  the  same  tribe,  in  the  case  of  bands 
so  widely  separated  geographically  and 
whose  dialects  were  so  distinct.83  The 
differences  seem  to  lie  mostly  in  the  ceramic 
field  and  to  be  the  result  of  influence  from 
the  Southern  Appalachian  region  upon  the 
Cherokee  at  Nacoochee,  an  influence  felt 
less  strongly  in  the  "Overhill  Towns"  on 
Tennessee  river,  where  the  ware  still  retained 
in  larger  measure  its  character  typical  of 


INDIAN   NOTES 


POTTERY 

283 

the  eastern  division  of  Holmes'   "Middle 

Mississippi  Valley"  ceramic  group. 

POTTERY 

More  specifically,  the  Cherokee  pottery  of 

upper  Tennessee  river,  by  the  presence  of 

frog,  fish,  and  bird  effigy  vessels,  occasional 

slender-necked    water    bottles,    "salt-pan" 

ware,    and    squat    spheroidal    pots    with 

broad   band   handles,  may   be   classed   in 

the  great  Middle  Mississippi  Valley  group: 

the  large,   oval  cooking-pots  and  certain 

decorative  designs  place  it  in  the  eastern 

division   of   this   group;    the   presence   of 

bowls  of  the  "cazuela"  type  and  fragments 

showing  complex  designs  stamped  with  a 

carved  paddle  show  Southern  Appalachian 

influence;  and  some  vessels  and  fragments 

suggesting    Iroquois    types,    perhaps    the 

influence  of  that  people.    The  Nacoochee 

Cherokee  pottery,  while  retaining  in  some 

degree  the  Middle  Mississippi  character, 

shows  much  more  stamped  ware  and  many 

more  cazuelas  and  other  Southern  Appa- 

lachian forms  in  proportion,  and  the  pot- 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

284 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

tery  made  of  late  by  the  Cherokee  is  of 

almost  pure  Southern  Appalachian  style. 

STONEWORK 

In  stonework  we  find  that  both  the  Over- 

hill  Cherokee  on  Tennessee  river  and  the 

eastern  Cherokee  at  Nacoochee  used  the 

triangular  arrowpoint  and  the  celt  type  of 

axe    exclusively,    and    preferred    the    leaf- 

shape  form  of  flint  kriife,  in  all  of  which 

respects    they    resembled    not    only    their 

linguistic    relatives,    the    Iroquois    of    the 

north,  but  their  predecessors  on  Tennessee 

river  (those  of  our  "Second  Culture"),  who 

may  have  been  their  ancestors. 

Two-holed    gorgets   of   stone,    or    stone 

gorgets  with  a  central  perforation,  were  not 

found    in    Cherokee    deposits,    nor    were 

"banner-stones"    nor    "bird-stones,"    but 

stone  pendants  with  the  perforation  near 

one  end  do  appear  occasionally,  in  all  of 

which  respects  the  Cherokee  seem  to  have 

resembled    the  Iroquois.    They  did,    how- 

ever,    sometimes     use     cylindrical     stone 

pestles,    one   being   found  in  a    Cherokee 

grave  of  the  historic  period,  an  implement 

INDIAN    NOTES 

IMPLEMENTS 

285 

which  was  seldom  employed  by  the  Iroquois, 

occurring  only  on  their  older  sites. 

In  their  use  of  discoidal  stones  the  Chero- 

kee  resembled   many    Middle   Mississippi 

Valley   and    Southern    tribes;   while    their 

pitted     stones,     mortars,      hammerstones. 

stone  hoes,  and  "net-sinkers"  show  nothing 

by  which  they  might  be  distinguished  from 

such    implements  as  produced    by    many 

other  tribes. 

BOXEWORK 

Their  arrowpoints,  their  punches  for  flint- 

working,  made  of  antler,  and  their  bone 

fishhooks,  bone  beads,  and  some  of  their 

bone-awl  forms  represent  widely  distributed 

types,    but    their    spatula-shaped    fleshing 

tools  of  bone  are  much  more  restricted  in 

distribution  and  may  be  characteristic  of 

the  tribe.     The  well-made  bone  awls,  with 

a  sharp  point  on  one  end  and  a  rounded 

one   on   the  other,    while   not   so   widely 

spread    as    the   first    group   of   bone   and 

antler    objects,    occur    in    Kentucky    and 

Ohio  as  well  as  in  eastern  Tennessee. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

286 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


SHELL  ORNAMENTS 

In  shell,  their  beads,  which  consisted  of 
Olivella  and  Oliva  shells,  perforated  for 
stringing,  as  well  as  many  cylindrical 
and  globular  forms  shaped  from  conch 
columellae,  disc-beads  made  of  fragments 
of  conch-whorls,  and  freshwater-pearl  beads, 
do  not  differ  in  any  marked  respect  from 
those  of  many  of  the  more  advanced  tribes 
of  the  Middle  Mississippi  and  Southern 
districts;  nor  do  their  pin-shaped  ear-orna- 
ments, nor  their  plain  gorgets  made  of 
conch-shell.  But  their  circular  gorgets 
with  the  rattlesnake  and  triskele  designs 
are  much  more  restricted;  yet  these  seem 
regional  rather  than  tribal  in  distribution, 
being  found  outside  of  Cherokee  territory, 
particularly  to  the  west. 

The  trade  in  marine  shells  from  the  Gulf, 
the  Atlantic,  or  both,  must  have  been 
very  extensive  in  prehistoric  times  to  have 
supplied  so  many  inland  tribes  with  such  a 
great  number  of  ornaments,  and  should 
furnish  an  interesting  subject  for  special 
study. 


INDIAN   NOTES 


ORNAMENTS—  FABRICS 

287 

COPPER     • 

As  to  copper,  the  Cherokee,  like  the  Iro- 

quois,  do  not  seem  to  have  taken  much 

interest   in   this  metal  until  contact  with 

white  traders  afforded  an  abundant  supply. 

the  native  copper  ornament  found  by  us  in 

a  mound   at   the  Bussell  place,   and   the 

copper  axe  obtained  at  Nacoochee,  being 

discovered  under  circumstances  which  make 

their  connection  with  the  Cherokee  doubtful. 

FABRICS 

The  fabrics  found  impressed  on  potsherds 

in  Cherokee  deposits  seem  to  have  been  for 

the  greater  part  from  woven  fiber  bags  such 

as  are  still  to  be  found  among  the  Central 

Algonkian    and    Southern    Siouan    tribes, 

with  a  few  that  may  have  been  used  as 

garments;     all    show     twined     techniques 

widely  distributed  in  eastern  North  Amer- 

ica.   Traces  of  matting   seen   with   some 

Cherokee  burials  seemed  to  have  been  of 

split    cane,    in    the    twilled    technique   of 

weaving. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

288 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


PIPES 

In  pipes,  more  than  in  anything  else,  the 
Cherokee  on  Tennessee  river  seem  to  have 
shown  individuality,  although  the  forms 
are  simple.  One  of  the  commonest  has 
the  bowl  set  at  a  slightly  obtuse  angle  to 
the  stem-piece,  with  the  rim  of  the  bowl 
and  the  proximal  end  of  the  stem-piece 
strengthened  by  a  flange,  while  in  some 
cases  this  flange  about  the  edge  of  the 
bowl  is  enlarged  into  a  disc.  Also  charac- 
teristic is  a  pipe  which  the  writer  regards 
as  representing  a  hafted  celt.  All  these 
pipes  may  be  regarded  as  typical;  all  were 
made  to  use  with  a  separate  stem  of  cane 
or  of  wood,  and  while  pottery  seems  to  have 
been  the  favorite  material,  stone  was  some- 
times employed.  Another  type  with  the 
base  more  or  less  pointed,  besides  being 
found  .occasionally  on  Cherokee  sites,  is 
also  reported  as  appearing  in  eastern  Ken- 
tucky and  southern  Ohio. 

At  Nacoochee  the  pipe-making  industry 
seems  to  have  reached  a  high  state  of 
development,  for  in  addition  to  the  simple 


INDIAN    NOTES 


PIPES 

289 

forms  above  described  used  in  the  "Over- 

hill  towns,"  a  number  of  other  forms  in 

earthenware  were  employed,  some  of  them 

ornate  to  the  point  of  being  grotesque.84 

None  of  the  small  pipes  of  dark  steatite, 

decorated  with  animal  effigies,  such  as  have 

been  made  and  used  by  the  modern  Chero- 

' 

kee,  was  found  either  on  Tennessee  river 

or  at  Nacoochee,  so  in  all  probability  this 

type  has  been  originated  within  the  last 

century. 

CONCLUSIONS  AND  THEORIES 

Basing  conclusions  on  the  archeological 

evidence,    Cherokee   material   culture,    for 

some  generations  at  least  before  the  coming 

of  the  whites,  must  have  been  very  similar 

indeed  to  that  of  most  of  the  tribes  of  the 

Middle  Mississippi  Valley  district,  particu- 

larly those  of  eastern  Kentucky  and  parts 

of    Ohio.     It    shows,    however,    a    strong 

influence  from  the  Southern  Appalachian 

region,  especially  in  ceramics,  which  natur- 

ally    made     itself     felt     mostly     in     the 

Cherokee  towns  situated  east  of  the  moun- 

tains; and   it  possessed   some  features   in 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

290 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


common  with  the  Iroquois,  such  as  the 
forms  of  arrowheads  and  axes. 

Our  theory  for  explaining  this  state  of 
affairs  must  depend  on  whether  or  not  we 
accept  the  "Second  Culture"  people  as 
ancestors  of  the  Cherokee.  If  we  do,  we 
must  first  of  all  discount  the  embossed 
copper  ornaments  and  polychrome  pottery 
as  importations,  like  the  marine-shell  orna- 
ments, or  as  local  and  temporary  develop- 
ments, and  admit  that  the  Cherokee,  having 
at  some  time  used  stone  graves  and 
practised  the  ceremonial  partial  burning  of 
bodies,  for  some  reason,  abandoned  these 
customs. 

We  can  then  proceed  to  picture  the 
Cherokee  arriving  in  the  upper  Tennessee 
valley  at  an  early  date  and  displacing  the 
more  primitive  Algonkian  tribes  which 
then  occupied  the  region.  That  they 
probably  came  from  the  west  or  northwest 
may  be  surmised  from  the  fact  that  the 
little  pottery  whose  connection  with  the 
builders  of  the  mounds  is  unmistakable, 
belongs  to  the  Middle  Mississippi  Valley 
rather  than  to  any  Southern  or  Eastern 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CULTURE    SEQUENCE 


291 


group.  Here  they  established  themselves, 
constructing  many  burial  mounds  as  the 
years  went  on,  as  well  as  occasional  large 
platform  mounds  upon  which  to  erect  their 
assembly  houses.  Their  culture  developed 
by  association  with  neighboring  tribes  of 
the  Middle  Mississippi  Valley  type;  then, 
when  a  branch  of  the  Cherokee  established 
itself  east  of  the  Appalachian  ranges  in 
contact  with  the  Southeastern  tribes,  their 
culture  commenced  to  show  influence  from 
this  direction. 

More  in  accordance  with  one  Cherokee 
tradition85  is  the  alternate  theory,  which 
postulates  at  the  beginning  that  our  "Sec- 
ond Culture"  people,  although  similar  to 
the  Cherokee  in  many  respects,  were 
really  a  separate  and  distinct  tribe.  We 
may  then  suppose  that  the  Cherokee  came 
in  from  the  upper  Ohio  valley  in  compara- 
tively recent  times,  finding  either  the 
people  of  the  "Second  Culture"  in  posses- 
sion, or  (according  to  one  account  received 
by  Haywood)86  that  these  had  disappeared, 
leaving  the  whole  upper  valley  depopulated 
except  for  a  settlement  of  Creeks  at  the 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


292 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


mouth  of  the  Hiwassee,  and  that  "the 
mounds  exhibited  the  same  appearance  upon 
the  arrival  of  the  Cherokee  as  they  now  do." 

If  this  is  true,  the  Cherokee  brought  with 
them  an  eastern  modification,  already 
highly  developed,  of  the  Middle  Mississippi 
Valley  culture,  which  became  influenced 
after  their  arrival  by  contact  with  the 
Southern  Appalachian  group  of  tribes,  as 
above  noted. 

According  to  this  theory  the  Cherokee 
may  have  separated"  from  the  other  Iro 
quoians  in  the  Ohio  valley,  the  latter  devel- 
oping their  own  peculiar  forms  in  pottery 
and  pipes  after  their  arrival  in  what  is  now 
Ontario,  New  York  state,  and  part  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  former  adopting  new 
types  from  the  Southeast,  but  both  branches 
of  the  Iroquoian  stock  retaining  their  orig- 
inal triangular  arrowpoints  and  celt-axes. 

The  writer  has  noted  in  other  cases  that 
the  pottery  forms  of  American  tribes  seem 
to  have  been  more  susceptible  to  outside 
influence  and  change  than  was  their  stone 
art;  this  becomes  more  comprehensible 
when  we  realize  that  among  most  tribes 


INDIAN    NOTES 


CULTURE    SEQUENCE 

293 

women    were    the    potters    and    men    the 

stone-workers,    and    that    captive    women 

were  often  adopted  into  the  tribe  of  their 

captors,  naturally  bringing  with  them  and 

practising   the   potter's   art   as    they   had 

learned  it  among  their  own  people  and  thus 

introducing    new    forms,    while    the    men 

prisoners    were    usually    disposed    of    and 

their  knowledge  of  their  own  tribal  stone 

art  thus  lost. 

Whatever  influence  this  factor  may  have 

had  on  the  development  of  Iroquoian  cul- 

ture,   both    Cherokee    and    northern,    the 

writer  can  only  hope,  in  concluding,  that 

at  some  time  further  work  will  determine 

which,  if  either,  of  the  above  theories  is 

correct,  and  will  solve  other  problems  con- 

nected   with    the   identity   of   the   earlier 

oeoples  of  the  upper  Tennessee  valley. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

294 

NOTES 

1.  MacCurdy,  George  Grant,  Some  Mounds  of 

Eastern    Tennessee,    Proceedings    of   the 

Nineteenth  International  Congress  of  Am- 

ericanists, Washington,  Dec.  1915,  Wash- 

ington, 1917. 

2.  Thomas,  Cyrus,  Report  on  the  Mound  Ex- 

plorations of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 

Twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of 

Ethnology,  Washington,  1894. 

3.  Moore,   Clarence   B.,   Aboriginal  Sites  on 

Tennessee  River,  Journal  of  the  Academy 

of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  vol. 

xvi,  Phila.,  1915. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  MacCurdy,  op.  cit.;  also:  The  Wesleyan 

University  Collection  of  Antiquities  from 

Tennessee,  Proceedings  of  the  Nineteenth 

International    Congress    of  Americanists, 

Dec.  1915,  Washington,  1917. 

6.  Thomas,  op.  cit. 

7.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  422. 

8.  Ibid.,  p.  421. 

9.  Thomas,  op.  cit.,  pp.  397  et  seq. 

10.  Ibid.,  p.  398. 

11.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  407. 

12.  Ibid. 

INDIAN    NOTES 

NOTES 


13.  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bull.  30, 

Bur.  Amer.  EthnoL,  p.  633,  Washington, 
1907-10. 

14.  Haywood,   John,   Natural  and  Aboriginal 

History  of  Tennessee,  pp.  234-237,  Nash- 
ville, 1823. 

15.  Mooney,  James,  Myths  of  the  Cherokee, 

Nineteenth  Annual  Report  Bur.  Amer. 
EthnoL,  pp.  222-223,  Washington,  1900. 

16.  Ibid.,  pp.  136-137. 

17.  Thomas,  Cyrus,   Catalogue  of  Prehistoric 

Works  East  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
Bull.  12,  Bur.  Amer.  EthnoL,  p.  209, 
Washington,  1891. 

18.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  394,  note. 

19.  Thomas,  Report  on  Mound  Explorations, 

op.  cit.,  p.  405. 

20.  Jones,  Joseph,  Explorations  of  the  Aborigi- 

nal Remains  of  Tennessee,  Smithsonian 
Contributions  to  Knowledge,  p.  131,  Wash- 
ington, 1876. 

21.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  395. 

22.  Ibid. 

23.  Given  by  Thomas  in  his  Report  on  Mound 

Explorations  (p.  405)  as  "about"  35  ft. 
high. 

24.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  345. 

25.  Ibid.,  p.  39  >. 

26.  Holmes,  W.  H.,  Aboriginal  Pottery  of  the 

Eastern  United  States,  Twentieth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Eth- 
nology, pp.  145  et  seq.,  Washington,  1903. 
27..Holmes',  W.  H.,  Prehistoric  Textile  Art  of 
Eastern  United  States,  Thirteenth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  43, 
Washington,  1896. 


295 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


296 


CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


28.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  346. 

29.  Ibid.,  pp.  241-243. 

30.  Ibid.,  p.  362. 

31.  Ibid.,  p.  345. 

32.  Mr  Myer  has  embodied  his  findings  concern- 

this  Siouan  culture  in  a  paper  soon  to  be 
published  under  Government  auspices. 

33.  Mooney,   op.   cit.,   p.    15.     Hayvvood,   op. 

cit.,  p.  225. 

34.  Mooney,  op.  cit.,  p.  103. 

35.  Holmes,  Aboriginal  Pottery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  80- 

81. 

36.  Harrington,  M.  R.,  Certain  Caddo  Sites  in 

Arkansas,  Indian  Notes  and  Monographs, 
p.  177,  New  York,  1920. 

37.  This  is  shown  by  the  types  found  in  the 

Nacoochee  mound.  See  Heye,  George 
G.;  Hodge,  F.  W.;  and  Pepper,  George 
H.,  The  Nacoochee  Mound  in  Georgia, 
Contributions  from  the  Museum  of  the 
American  Indian,  Heye  Foundation,  vol. 
iv,  no.  3,  New  York,  1918. 

38.  Ibid.,  pp.  63-65. 

39.  Smith,  Harlan  I.,  Prehistoric  Ethnology  of 

a  Kentucky  Site,  Anthr.  Papers,  Ameri- 
can Museum  of  Natural  History,  vol.  vi, 
pt.  II,  New  York,  1910.  Hooton,  Ernest 
A.,  Indian  Village  Site  and  Cemetery 
near  Madisonville,  Ohio,  with  Notes  on 
the  Artifacts  by  Charles  C.  Willoughby, 
Papers  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Ameri- 
can Archeology  and  Ethnology,  Harvard 
University,  vol.  vin,  no.  1,  p.  78,  Bosfon, 
1920. 

40.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  p.  60. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


NOTES 

297 

41.  Ibid.,  pi.  xvii,  a. 

42.  Harrington,  M.  R.,  op.  cit.,  p.  177. 

43.  MacCurdy,    Wesleyan    University    Collec- 

tion, op.  cit.,  pi.  ix. 

44.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  317. 

45.  Holmes,  Aboriginal  Pottery,  op.  cit.,  p.  80. 

46.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  345. 

47.  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  223,  pi.  iv,  fig.  11. 

48.  ^Harrington,  M.  R.,  The  Last  of  the  Iroquois 

Potters,  Bulletin  133,  N.  Y.  Stale  Museum, 

Fifth  Report  of  the  Director,  1908,  pp.  222- 

227,  Albany,  1909. 

49.  Harrington,  M.  R.,  Catawba    Potters  and 

their  Work,  Amer.  Anthropologist,   n.  s., 

July-Sept.,  1908. 

50.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  p.  88. 

51.  Timberlake,    Lieut.    Henry,    Memoirs    of 

Lieut.  Henry  Timberlake   (who    accom- 

panied  the   three   Cherokee    Indians  to 

England  in  the  year  1762),  p.  43,  London, 

1765. 

52.  Holmes,  \V.  H.,  "Stonework,"  in  Handbook 

of  American  Indians,  Bulletin  30,  Bureau 

of  American  Ethnology,   pt.   2,   p.    640, 

Washington,    1910.     Handbook    of    Ab- 

original American  Antiquities,  Bull.  60, 

Bur.  Amer.  Ethnol,  pt.  i,  pp.  296-297, 

Washington,  1919. 

53.  See  note  52. 

54.  Adair,  James,  The  History  of  the  American 

Indians,  Particularly  those  Nations  Ad- 

joining to  the  Mississippi,  East  and  West 

Florida,  Georgia,  South  and  North  Caro- 

lina, and  Virginia,  p.  402,  London,  1775. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

298  CHEROKEE    REMAINS 


55.  Butel-Dumont,   Georges  Marie,  Memoires 

Historiques  sur  la  Louisiane,  tome  I,  pp. 
94-95,  Paris,  1753. 

56.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  p.  68. 

57.  Holmes,  W.  H.,  Prehistoric  Textile  Art,  p. 

31. 

58.  Orchard,  W.  C.,  Sandals  and  other  Fabrics 

from  Kentucky  Caves,  Indian  Notes  and 
Monographs,  pp.  17  et  seq.,  and  pi.  vi, 
New  York,  1920. 

59.  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  186,  pi.  xxi. 

60.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  pp.  370-387. 

61.  MacCurdy,  Mounds  of  Eastern  Tennessee, 

op.  cit.,  pp.  57-68 

62.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  p.  342. 

63.  Ibid.,  p.  262. 

64.  Le  Page  du  Pratz,  Antoine  S.,  Histoire  de 

la  Louisiane,  tome  n,  p.  196,  Paris,  1758. 

65.  Butel-Dumont,  op.  cit.,  p.  94. 

66.  MacCurdy,  Some  Mounds  of  Eastern  Ten- 

nessee, op.  cit.,  pp.  68,  72. 

67.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  pi.  xlvi. 

68.  MacCurdy,  Some  Mounds  of  Eastern  Ten- 

nessee, op.  cit.,  p.  74. 

69.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  pi.  xlv, 

xlvi. 

70.  Parker,  Arthur  C.,  An  Erie  Village  and 

Burial  Site  at  Ripley,  Chautauqua  county, 
New  York,  Bulletin  117,  N.  Y.  State 
Museum,  Albany,  1907. 

71.  Mooney,  James,  "Chunkey,"  in  Handbook 

of  American  Indians,  Bulletin  30,  Bureau 
of  American  Ethnology,  pt.  i,  p.  298, 
Washingon,  1907 

72.  Timberlake,  op.  cit.,  pp.  76-77. 


INDIAN    NOTES 


NOTES 

299 

73.  Jones,  Charles  C.,  Jr.,  Antiquities  of  the 

Southern    Indians,    Particularly    of    the 

Georgia  Tribes,  pp.  341,  et  seq.,  New  York, 

1873. 

74.  Fowke,    Gerard,    "Discoidal    Stones,"    in 

Handbook  of  American  Indians,  Bulletin 

30,  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  pt.  I, 

p.  392,  Washington,  1907. 

75.  Mills,  Wm.  C.,  Explorations  of  the  Baum 

Prehistoric  Village  Site,  Ohio  Archaologi- 

cal  and  Historical  Quarterly,  vol.  xv,  no.  1, 

p.  49,  Columbus,  1906. 

76.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  pp.  393,  404-405. 

77.  Bartram,  William,  Travels  through  North 

and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  East  and 

West   Florida,    the    Cherokee    Country, 

the  Extensive  Territories  of  the  Musco- 

culges    or  Creek    Confederacy    and    the 

Country  of  the  Choctaws,  pp.  365-366, 

London,  1792. 

78.  Ibid. 

79.  Moore,  op.  cit.,  pp.  261  et  seq. 

80.  Ibid.,  p.  338  et  seq. 

81.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  pp.  18 

et  seq. 

82.  Hay  wood,  op.  cit. 

83.  Mooney,  Myths  of  the  Cherokee,  op.  cit., 

pp.  16,  17. 

84.  Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  op.  cit.,  p.  74. 

85.  Haywood,  op.  cit.,  pp.  225-226. 

86.  Ibid.,  pp.  234-235,  237. 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

300 

INDEX 

Academ\  of  Natural  Sciences,  artifacts  in,  155, 

165 

Adair,  James,  on  discoidal  stones,  236 

Adzes,  how  fashioned,  230-231;  how  sharpened, 

233;  with  burials,  105,  117 

Agricultural  implements  described,  217-218 

A  hu'lude'gl,  see  Jolly,  John 

Alabama,  collection  from,  46.    See  Kodger's  island 

Algonkian   influence,   in   Tennessee  valley,  30, 

61,  143,  145,  166-167,  277,  290;  woven  bags 

of,  206,  242,  287 

Animal  bones  in  pits,  60;  sites  marked  by,  26, 

49,  139;  with  burials,  118 

Animal-claw  represented  on  pipe,  264 

Animal-teeth,     pendants    of,     243,     277.    See 

Teeth 

Antler,  arrowpoints  of,  discussed,  209-210,  237, 

285;  bracer  of,  with  burial,   71;  implement 

with  dead,  57-58;  objects,  how  made,  237; 

used  for  flaking,  234;  wedges  of,  230.     See 

Bonework 

Arch,  Jennie,  Cherokee  potter,  196 

Arrowmaking  tools  buried  with  cripples  106, 

Arrowpoinls,  antler,  how  made,  237;  antler,  of 

early  Cherokee,  209-210,  237,  285;  at  Main- 

land village-site,   148;  bones  used  for,  229; 

from  Rodger's  island,  Ala.,  165;  how  made, 

237;  in  Great  Midden,  67;  in  mounds,  87, 

129;  in  pits,  60,  79;  of  early  Cherokee,  45, 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

301 

81,  143,  144,  167,  190,  206-210,  284;  of  early 

Iroquois,  292;  of  Hiwassee  island,  107,  112, 

141,  142;  of  Round  Grave  people,  81,  158, 

166,  277;  of  Second  culture,  279;  sites  marked 

by,  26;  with  burials,  39,  40,  42,  51,  56,  57, 

70,  71,  89,  91,  97,  100,  104,  117-125,  133, 

137,  166 

ArrowsJtafts  of  early  Cherokee,  210-211 

Arrow-wounds  in  skeletons,  59,   119,   125-126, 

133,  159 

Ashes,  burial  made  on;  90;  village-sites  marked 

by,   26,   276.     See  Burning;  Charcoal;  Cre- 

mation 

Ash-layers  in  midden,  66 

Ash-pits,  see  Pits 

Awls,  bone,  how  made,  237;  of  early  Cherokee, 

285;  of  Round  Grave  people.  81,  161,  277; 

use  of,  227-228;  with  burial,  59,  71,  123,  135; 

used  in  weaving,  224.     See  Bodkins;  Bone 

Axes,  copper,  from  Nacoochee  mound,  280,  287; 

grooved,  of  Round  Grave  people,  159,  277; 

grooved,  on  Hiwassee  island,  142;  how  sharp- 

ened, 233;  of  early  Cherokee,  143,  144,  167, 

213-215,  290.     See  Celt-axes 

Bags  of  fiber  cords,  205,  241-242,  287 

Ball-play  among  Cherokee,  269 

Banner-stones  absent  from  Cherokee  deposits, 

284 

Bark  used  for  firing  pottery,  202 

•Barnes,  G.  ~D.,  collection  of,  98;  excavation  by, 

97,  103,  137,  139,  212;  shell  gorgets  found  by, 

252,  253 

Barlram,  William,  on  Southern  town-house,  275 

Basketry,  Cherokee  use  of,  221 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

302 


CHEROKEE  REMAINS 


Beads,  bone,  of  early  Cherokee,  285;  bone,  with 
burial,  141;  garments  covered  with,  121,  134; 
glass,  with  skeletons,  63,  77,  78;  of  early 
Cherokee,  244-252;  pearl,  with  burial,  77; 
shell,  of  early  Cherokee,  82,  286;  shell,  with 
burials,  53,  55,  59,  65,  76,  97,  117,  118,  120, 
124,  134,  135.  See  Bird-bones;  Disc-beads; 
Necklaces;  Shells 

Beaming  tools,  see  Skin-dressing 

Bear,  tube  of  tibia  of,  271 

Bear-teeth  used  as  pen'dants,  254-255;  with 
dead,  55 

Beaver-teeth  used  as  chisels,  233 

Benham,  Dayton,  aid  rendered  by,  96;  collection 
of,  98,  112,  142,  252-253;  exploration  by, 
97,  139,  212 

Benham,  P.  D.,  mounds  on  land  of,  93 

Bennett  place,  burial  mound  at,  280;  cultural 
features  of,  169;  effigy  vessels  from,  190; 
excavation  at,  107;  fabric  from,  164;  gorget 
from,  256 

Bird-bones,  awls  made  of,  229;  beads  made  of, 
243,  249-251 

Bird  effigy  on  vessels,  76,  144,  187-188,  283. 
See  Effigies 

Bird's  beak  represented  on  pipe,  264 

Bird-stones  absent  from  Cherokee  deposits,  284 

Blood-letting,  see  Scratchers 

Blowgun  of  the  Cherokee,  211 

Boat-stones  of  steatite,  270 

Bodkins,  uses  of,  224,  229;  with  burial,  118 

Bone,  bracers  of,  277;  hoes  of,  218;  implements 
of  early  Cherokee,  82,  144,  206;  implements 
of  Round  Grave  people,  81,  166;  implements 
used  in  weaving,  224;  implements  with 


INDIAN    NOTES 


INDEX 


burials,  57,  118,  120,  122,  141;  scratchers  of, 
269;  tube  with  burial,  122;  tubes  of  problem- 
atic use,  271;  bones,  animal,  sites  marked  by, 
26,  49,  139.  See  Animal  bones;  Awls;  Beads; 
Bird-bones;  Deer-bone;  Fish-bone;  Implements 

Bone  burials,  described,  88-90,  274;  on  Hiwassee 
island,  115 

Boneit'ork  of  early  Cherokee,  285;  of  Round 
Grave  people,  161-163;  tools  for,  237 

Bottle,  effigy,  in  Nacoochee  mound,  281;  of 
early  Cherokee,  186-187,  283.  See  Effigies; 
Pottery 

Bou'ls  made  from  marine  shell,  125;  of  early 
Cherokee,  183-186;  sherds  of,  in  mound, 
110-111;  wooden,  how  made,  229-230.  See 
Pottery 

Bows  of  early  Cherokee,  210-211.  See  War 
equipment 

Box  tortoise  with  dead,  56 

Bracelets,  iron,  with  skeletons,  64,  77,  78 

Bracer  of  antler  with  burial,  71;  of  bone,  162- 
163;  of  Round  Grave  people,  81,  277 

Brakebill  mound,  objects  from,  253,  261 

Bran  used  in  pottery-making,  203 

Brass  objects  with  burials,  77,  98,  165.  See 
Sheet-brass 

Breechclonl,  see  Clothing 

Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  mound  explora- 
tion by,  27,  34,  35,  44,  63,  65,  66,  72,  77,  82, 
97.  See  Emmert,  J.  W.;  Thomas,  Cyrus 

Burial  customs  observed  by  Moore,  165-166; 
of  early  Cherokee,  167-168,  281-282;  of  later 
period,  167;  of  Round  Grave  people,  164 

Burials,  classes  of,  29;  in  mounds,  36-45,  86, 
103-146,  273-275;  of  historic  period,  77-78; 


303 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


304 

CHEROKEE   REMAINS 

on    Bussell's    island,    63-78;    on    Hiwassee 

island,  97.     See  Cemetery;  Graves;  Round  Grave 

culture 

Burning  of  bodies,  143-144,  168,  169,  278,  279. 

See  Cremation 

Burnt  clay  over  grave,  165 

Bussell,  J.  W.,  aid  rendered  by,  48;  owner  of 

mounds,  34-35 

Bussell's  island,  exploration  on,  62-82;  Great 

Midden  on,  276;  mounds  on,  272;  parts  of 

steatite  vessels  from,  151;  Round  Grave  cul- 

ture on,  277 

Butel-Dumont,  G.  M.,  on  ear-ornaments,  238- 

239,  258 

Butler,  C.  G.,  mounds  on  land  of,  84 

Caddo  culture,  bottles  common  to,  186 

Cane,   matting   made   of,   240-242,   287;   used 

for  pipe-stems,   288;   used   in   drilling,   236. 

-  See  Rushes 

Canoes,  how  made,  229-230 

Catawba,  pottery  tools  of  the,  201 

Caves,  fabric  bags  from,  242;  mats  found  in, 

240;  near  Louisville,  Tenn.,  32 

Cazuela   vessels,    a    type    of   pottery,    175;    of 

early  Cherokee,  283;  sherds  of,  in  mound,  111. 

See  Bowls;  Pottery 

Cedar  posts  in  grave,  75,  141 

Celt-axes  of  early  Cherokee,  144,  167,  206,  284; 

of  early  Iroquois,  292;  of  Second  culture,  279; 

use  of,  230 

Celts,  how  manufactured,  234-235;  placed  with 

dead,  59;  represented  by  pipe,  263-264,  288; 

with  burial,  105,  117,  118,  120,  122,  125,  137. 

See  Axes 

INDIAN    NOTES 

I  N  D  EX 


Cemetery  at  Mainland  village-site,  48-62;  on 
Bussell  place,  272.  See  Burials;  Graves 

Ceremonial  objects  of  early  Cherokee,  269 

Charcoal  in  mounds,  37,  87;  sites  marked  by,  26; 
with  burial,  39,  43,  134,  135,  137.  See  Ashes 

Charms,  boat  models  used  as,  270 

Chattanooga,  gorgets  found  near,  253;  hafted 
celt  found  near,  214;  painted  pottery  found 
near,  60;  Siouan  remains  near,  46 

Cherokee,  abandonment  of  Hiwassee  island  by, 
145;  absence  of  steatite  from  sites  of,  143; 
age  of  burials  of,  91;  arrowpoints  of,  45,  112, 
158;  arrows  of,  126;  artifacts  of,  29;  axes  of, 
159;  bone  awls  of,  161;  burials  uncovered,  60- 
61,  72,  76,  81,  98,  104;  character  of  graves  of, 
50;  character  of  pottery  of,  110-111;  customs 
on  Hiwassee  island,  95;  culture  of,  167-171, 
281-293;  Mainland  village-site  of,  52-53; 
midden  attributed  to,  67;  mortuary  customs 
of,  81. 92;  mounds  attributed  to,  46;  objects  of, 
in  midden,  80;  orientation  of  burials  by,  114; 
ornaments  of,  243-260;  pestles  from  deposits 
of,  160;  pits  attributed  to,  78,  79;  pottery 
of,  158,  172-204;  remains  on  Hiwassee  island, 
140-141,  142-146;  sequence  of  occupancy 
by,  81 

Chips,  sites  marked  by,  26.     See  Flint 

Chisel,  see  Celt-axes 

Chote,  chunkey  game  played  at,  266-267 

Clninkey  game  of  Southern  tribes,  266.  See 
Games 

Circular  grai-es  at  Mainland  village-site,  50-51, 
148;  described,  87-89.  See  Round  graves 

Citico  creek,  pipes  from,  262 

Clay  for  Cherokee  pottery,  197-198 


305 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


306 


CHEROKEE   REMAINS 


Clay-stones,  paint  derived  from,  260 

Clothing  of  the  Cherokee,  221-229 

Collar  of  shells  on  skeleton,  136.     See  Garments 

Color  of  Cherokee  pottery,  175-176 

Conch-shells,  beads  made  from,  117,  118,  134, 
136,  137,  246-247;  found  in  graves,  87,  92, 
118-119,  123;  ornaments  from,  238-239;  pen- 
dants from,  125, 253-254.  See  Ear-ornaments; 

.    Shells 

Concretion  with  burial,  117 

Cooking-vessels  discussed,  177-183;  of  early 
Cherokee,  283.  See  Pottery 

Copper,  axe  in  Nacoochee  mound,  280;  bracelets 
in  graves,  145;  gorget  from  Bussell  place,  255- 
256;  not  with  Round  Grave  people,  163; 
objects  of  early  Cherokee,  287;  objects  with 
burials,  77;  ornaments  in  graves,  45,  46,  145, 
168-170,  242,  244;  ornaments  of  Second 
culture,  279-280;  ornaments  of  Tennessee 
valley,  290.  See  Sheet-copper 

Cords,  matting  made  of,  279;  pottery  decorated 
with,  177,  180.  See  Fabrics;  Textiles 

Cores,  flint,  with  burials,  121,  123.     See  Flint 

Corn,  Cherokee  treatment  of,  219;  use  of,  by 
early  Cherokee,  217 

Corn-cobs  used  in  pottery  making,  203 

Creeks,  character  of  pottery  of,  110;  formerly 
at  Hiwassee  mouth,  95,  170-171,  281,  291-292 

Cremation,  evidences  of,  38,  92.    See  Burning 

Crinoid  stems,  beads  made  from,  125,  249 

Cripples,  woodworking  by,  106,  231-232 

Cross,  engraved  on  discoidal,  77,  268;  on  tablet, 
123 

Culture  periods  of  Tennessee  river,  276-293 


INDIAN    NOTES 


INDEX 

307 

Cumberland  valley,  early  culture  of,  170;  pottery 

of,  192;  Siouan  culture  in,  280 

Dayton,  Tenn.,  mounds  near,  93 

Decoration    of    pottery,    177,    196,    283.     See 

Ornamentation 

Deer-bone,  awls  of,   120,   161,  228;  in  midden 

pits,  79;  sites  marked  by,  32;  with  burial,  117 

Deerskin,  clothing  of,  222 

Deposits,  mortuary,  53;  mortuary,  in  rectangu- 

lar graves,  73-77;  mortuary,  of  Round  Grave 

people,  71.    See  Graves 

Disc,  pipe  bowl  surmounted  by,  264;  pottery, 

how  used,  195;  pottery,  in  grave,  76-77,  1.04; 

stone,  use  of,  226-227;  stone,  with  dead,  56,  77 

Disc-beads,    on    skeleton,    134,    136;    relative 

scarcity  of,  248.     See  Beads 

Discoidal    stones,    how    made,    236;    of    early 

Cherokee,  144.  244.  285;  used  in  game,  265- 

268;  with  burial,  117,  120,  121 

Distribution  of  Round  Grave  people,  164-166 

Dog  burials  at  Mainland  site,  59-60;  by  Chero- 

kee, 78;  in  Great  Midden,  78;  on  Hiwassee 

island,  127;  with  human  remains,  56,  119,  123 

Drilling,  how  done,  236;  of  conch-shells,  247 

Drills,  flint,  use  of,  233,  236,  237;  flint,  with 

burial,  120 

Dumont,  see  Butd-Dumont 

Dunning,  E.  O.,  investigations  by,  27 

Dn   Pratz,    Le   Page,   on   Louisiana   ear-orna- 

ments, 258 

Ear-ornaments  of  shell,  54,  121,  123,  124,  238, 

247,  257-259,  286 

Earthenware,  see  Pottery 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

308 

CHEROKEE  REMAINS 

Effigies  on  pipes,  264,  289;  on  pottery,  182-183. 

See  Bird  effigy;  Frog  effigy;  Owl  effigy;  Sun- 

fish  effigy  _ 

Effigy  bottle  in  Nacoochee  mound,  281 

Effigy  vessels  of  early  Cherokee,  144,  186-189, 

283 

Emmerl,  J.  W.,  exploration  by,  27,  35,  40,  44, 

63-66,  73,  97,  138,  184.    See  Bureau  of  Ameri- 

can Ethnology 

Erie,  pipes  from  village-site  of,  264 

Euchee,  mounds  near,  83 

European    objects,    see   Brass    objects;    Copper; 

Glass  beads;  Iron 

Fabrics  of  early  Cherokee,   222,   287;  pottery 

marked  with,   111,  155-157,   164,  177,   185, 

277.    See  Cords;  Textiles 

Fire  used  in  perforating  shell,   239;  used  in 

tree-felling,  230.     See  Burning 

Firing  of  Cherokee  pottery,  202-204 

Fish-bone,  awl  of,  123 

Fish  effigy  vessel,  283.     See  Sun-fish  effigy 

Fishhooks,  bone,  of  early  Cherokee,  285;  how 

made,  237 

Fishing  tackle  of  early  Cherokee,  215-217 

Fish-spears,  absence  of,  217 

Flaking,   how   accomplished,    234.     See   Flint; 

Stonework 

Fleshing   tools   of  early   Cherokee,    285;   with 

dead,  57.     See  Skin-dressing 

Flexure  of  skeletons,  38,  43,  45,  51,  52,  54-57, 

59,  64,  69,  73,  75,  76,  81,  90,  104,  115,  123, 

132,  133,  136,  141,  279 

Flint,  arrowpoints  of,   159,  207-209;  chips  in 

mounds,   37,  87;  chips  in  rock-shelter,  33; 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

309 

chips,  sites  marked  by,  26,  49,   139;  chips 

with  burials,  39,  40,  43,  117,  121;  cores  from 

Hiwassee  island,  226;  cores  with  burials,  121, 

123;  flakes,  use  of,  227;  various  uses  of,  233, 

236,  237.     See  Drills;  Knives 

Flint-working,  punches  for,  285 

Food,  implements  for  preparing,  218-221;  sup- 

ply of  Tennessee  Indians,  25-26 

Fowke,  Gerard,  on  discoidal  stones,  268 

Frog  effigy  vessels,  55,  144,  187,  283 

Furs,  clothing  made  of,  222 

Games,   bone   objects   used   in,    229;   of   early 

Cherokee,    265-268;   pottery   discs   used   in, 

195.     See  Chunkey  game 

Garments  covered  with  shells,  245-246 

Georgia,  see  Nacoochee  mound 

Glass  beads  associated  with  shell  gorget,  253; 

from  BusselPs  island,  82;  in  Cherokee  graves, 

98;  with  burials,  63-64,  77,  78,  141,  145,  165, 

251-252 

Gorgets   from    Kodger's   island,   Ala.,    165;    of 

conch-shell,    286;    of    copper    from    Bussell 

place,  255;  of  Round  Grave  people,  81,  160- 

161,  277;  of  steatite,  152;  shell,  how  made. 

238-239;   shell,   with   burial,    124;   slate,   in 

midden  pit,   79;   stone,  of  Tennessee  river, 

284;  stone,  with  burial,  40,   117,  137.     See 

Pendants 

Gourd,  use  of,  in  pottery  making,  199,  201 

Graphite  found  with  burial,  117;  paint  derived 

from,  260 

Graves,  axes  found  in,  215;  Cherokee,  contents 

of,  173;  circular,  of  Tennessee  river,  277-278; 

circular  stone,  described,  87-89;  types  of,  at 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

310 

CHEROKEE     REMAINS 

Mainland  site,  50-51.     See  Burials;  Cemetery; 

Rectangular     graves;     Round     graves;    Stone 

graves 

Great  Midden,  Bussell's  island,  culture  of,  148- 

149;    described,    66-68,    276;    stone    objects 

from,  161,  265 

Grooving,  how  done,  237 

Hammerslones    from    Great   Midden,    161;    in 

pottery  making,  196,  198;  of  early  Cherokee, 

285;  use  of,  218-219,  221,  234-236 

Hampton,  Walter,  grave-pits  on  land  of,   165, 

278;   mounds   on   land   of,    83.     See    Upper 

Hampton  place 

Handles  of  pottery,  177-179,  283 

Harpoons,  absence  of,  217 

Haywood,  John,  on  early  Cherokee  and  Creeks, 

95,  171,  291 

Hearths  in  midden,  66-67 

Hematite,  paint  derived  from,  260 

Heye,  Hodge,  and  Pepper,  on  Nacoochee  mound, 

179,  282.     See  Nacoochee  mound 

Hiwassee  island,  burial  customs  on,   168,  280; 

discoidal   stones   from,   265;   exploration   of, 

93-269,    272-273;   pottery   of,    281;    Round 

Grave  culture  of,  277;  sites  near,  27 

Hoes  of  early  Cherokee,  218,  285 

Holmes,  W.  H.,  on  Middle  Mississippi  pottery, 

174,  283;  on  stone  flaking,  234;  Round  Grave 

pottery  reported  by,  164 

House  furnishings  of  the  Cherokee,  240-242 

Houses,  character  of,  on  Hiwassee  island,  140 

Houston,  Sam,  relations  with  John  Jolly,  95 

Human  face  represented  on  pottery,   182-183. 

See  Effigies 

Hunting  equipment  of  early  Cherokee,  206-215 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

311 

Idols,  see  Effigies;  Images 

Images,  stone,  from  Hnvassee  island,  98-99,  102. 

See  Effigies 

Implements,  agricultural,  of  early  Cherokee,  217- 

218;  deposited  with  dead,  53;  for  bonework, 

237;  for  clothing  manufacture,  221-229;  for 

food  preparation,  218-221;  for  pottery  mak- 

ing, 196-197,  239-240;  for  shell-working,  238- 

239;  for  stoneworking,    233-236;    for  wood- 

working, 229-233;  from  the  Great  Midden.  80; 

of  early  Cherokee,  205-242;  sites  marked  by, 

49,  139;  stone,  with  burials,  100.     See  Bone; 

Hunting  equipment;  Shells;  Stone;  War  equip- 

ment; Wood 

Iron  articles  with  burials,  64,  77,  78,  98,  145, 

165;  objects  on  Bussell's  island,  82 

Iroquois   and    Cherokee    culture    related,    244, 

283-284,  289-290,  292;  arrowpoints  of,  207; 

boat  models  used  as  charms  by,  270;  celts  of, 

213;  copper  objects  among,  287;  flint  knives 

of,  212;  pipes  of,  244,  264;  pottery  decorated 

with  paddle,  186;  style  in  Southern  pottery, 

76,  174,  182-183;  type  of  pendant,  255 

Ivins,  George,  help  rendered  by,  35 

In  'i  Katdlsla,  a  Cherokee  potter,  196 

Jingler  of  sheet-copper,  61 

Jolly,  John,  a  Cherokee,  94-96;  leaves  Hiwassee 

island,  145;  occupies  Hiwassee  island,  172-173 

Jolly's  island,  see  Hiwassee  island 

Jones,  C.  C.,  on  chunkey  game,  268 

Jones,  Joseph,  cited,  98;  collection  of,  46 

• 

Kentucky,  bone  awls  of,  285;  eastern,  culture  of, 

289;  fabric  bags  from,  242;  pipes  from,  262, 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

312 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

265,  288;  pottery  of,  180,  185,  191;  steatite 

vessel  from,  151 

Knives,  flint,  for  woodworking,  232-233;  flint, 

how  used,  219,  227,  236,  237;  flint,  of  early 

Cherokee,  212-213,  284;  flint,  with  dead,  57- 

58,  117;  stone,  with  skeletons,  63 

Knoxvillc,  Tenn.,  expedition  at,  30 

Rodger's  island,  Ala.,  culture  of,  278;  remains 

on,  165 

Leggings,  see  Clothing;  Garments 

Legs,  pottery  vessels  with,  111.     See  Pottery 

Lenoir  City,  arrival  of  expedition  at,  31;  arrow- 

points  from,  209;  mounds  near,  34-80;  sites 

near,  27 

Lenoir  island,  see  Bussell's  island 

Limestone,  agricultural  tools  of,  218;  basin  on 

Hiwassee  island,  106-107;  discoidal  stones  of, 

265,  268;  used  for  stone  graves,  274 

Limonite,  paint  derived  from,  260 

Lisle  mound,  pipe  from,  263 

Little  River  shoals,  site  near,  32 

Louisville,  Tenn.,  sites  near,  32  _ 

Lynx-teeth  as  ornaments,  163;  with  burials,  71 

McBee  mound,  pipe  from,  261,  263 

MacCurdv,  G.  G.,  archeological  studies  by,  27, 

29,  185,  253,  261,  263,  264 

Mainland  iiillage-site,  bear-teeth  pendants  from> 

255;   culture   of,    147-148;   discoidal   stones 

from,  265;  discussed,  47-62;  flint  knife  from, 

• 

212;  shell  beads  from,  248 

Mantle,  see  Clothing;  Garments 

Mask  of  shell,  112;  type  of  shell  gorget,  252,  253 

Mats  of  the  Cherokee,  240-242 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 


If  ailing,  body  covered  with,  122;  in  graves,  45, 
155-157,  279,  287 

Mauls,  wooden,  use  of,  230 

Mxxey's  island,  see  Prater's  island 

May's  Lick,  Ky.,  pottery  from,  191 

Mica  with  skeletons,  63,  105 

Midden,  see  Great  Midden 

Middle  Mississippi  district,  culture  of,  289-292; 
pottery  of,  174,  180,  183,  186,  187,  283 

Migration  of  early  Cherokee,  291;  Tennessee 
river  a  route  of,  25 

Moccasins,  see  Clothing;  Garments 

Modelers  of  earthenware,  194 

Mooney,  James,  information  by,  196;  on 
chunkey  game,  266;  on  Houston  and  jolly, 
95-96 

Moore,  Clarence  B.,  researches  and  observations 
by,  23,  27-29,  31,  60,  83,  84,  86,  87,  91,  92, 
97,  99-102,  107,  129,  137-138,  155,  164-166, 
169-170,  185,  189,  253,  256,  257,  262,  264. 
274,  277-278,  280 

Mortars  for  grinding  musselshells,  240;  stone,  of 
early  Cherokee,  285;  wooden,  use  of,  219,  221 

^founds,  how  built,  103,  132;  near  Lenoir  City, 
34-80;  near  Rhea  Springs,  83-92;  of  the 
Cherokee,  281-283,  290-291;  types  of,  ex- 
plored, 273-275.  See  Sites 

Mussels  used  as  food,  216-217 

Musselshells  in  midden,  66;  in  mound,  87,  109- 
110,  128;  perforated,  use  of,  269-270;  sites 
marked  by,  26,  32,  47,  49,  139,  141;  used  in 
pottery  making,  176,  202,  240;  with  burial. 
56,  117,  122,  123 

Myer,  W.  E.,  on  Cumberland  valley  culture,  46, 
170,  280 


313 


AND    MONOGRAPHS 


314 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

Nacoochee  •mound,  artifacts  from,  208,  280,  282; 

burials  in,  275;  celts  from,  214;  copper  objects 

from,  287;  flint  knife  from,  212;  pipes  from, 

261-265,   288-289;   pottery  from,    176,    179, 

183,    185,   283;   pottery  paddles  from,   230; 

stonework  of,  284 

Necklaces  on  skeletons,  54,  56,  136.     See  Beads 

Net-sinkers  from  Great  Midden,  161;  of  early 

Cherokee,  285.     See  Fishing  tackle;  Sinkers 

Nettecawaw,  game  of,  267.     See  Chunkey  game 

New  York,  western,  pipes  of,  264.     See  Iroquois 

North  Carolina,  pipes  from,  262 

Nuts,  how  used  as  food,  221;  placed  with  burial, 

131,  135 

Nut-stones  of  the  Cherokee,  220 

Offerings    to    the    d"ead,    116-125,    274.     See 

Deposits 

Ohio,  aboriginal  culture  of,  289;  bone  awls  of. 

285;  pipes  from,  265,  288;  southern,  pottery 

of,  180 

Olivella,  see  Beads;  Shells 

Ontario,  eastern,  pipes  of,  264 

Orientation  of  burials,  38,  42-43,  45,  51-57,  71, 

73,  76,  89-90,  104,  114,  132,  133,  136 

Ornamentation,  incised,  on  pendant,  254-255;  of 

pottery,  154-158.     See  Decoration 

Ornaments,   copper,   in   graves,    168-170,    242, 

244;  copper,  of  the  Cherokee,  287;  copper,  of 

Second   culture,    279-280;   copper,   of   Ten- 

nessee valley,  290;  deposited  with  dead,  53, 

54;  in  Round  graves,  81;  of  the  Cherokee, 

243-260;   of   Second   culture,   279;   shell,   of 

early  Cherokee,  82,  144,  167,  238-239,  286; 

shell,   of   Tennessee   valley,    290;    stone,    of 

Round  Grave  people,  160-161.     See  Beads; 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

315 

Copper;    Ear-ornaments;    Gorgets;    Necklaces, 

Pendants;  Shells 

Osage,  fabric  bag  from,  242 

Owl  effigy  vessel  with  burial,  105 

Paddles,  carved,  for  decorating  pottery,   185, 

197,  201,  239;  designs  stamped  with,  283 

Paint  of  early  Cherokee,   259-260;  red,  with 

burial,  77,  121 

Paint-cup,  concretion  used  as,  117 

Paint-stone,  see  Graphite;  Hematite 

Parker,  A.  C.,  exploration  by,  106,  264 

Peabody  Museum  of  Harvard,  exploration  for, 

27,  106 

Peabody  Museum  of  Yale,  investigations  for,  27 

Pearls,  beads  of,  77,  243,  249,  256-257,  286 

Pecking,    stone,    how    effected,    235-236.     See 

Stonework 

Pendants   as   ear-ornaments,    259;    of   animal- 

teeth,  277;  of  early  Cherokee,  252-255;  of 

what  composed,  243;  shell,  with  burial,  118, 

120,  121,  125;  stone,  how  made,  236;  stone, 

of  Cherokee,  244,  284 

Pestles  from  Tennessee  river,  159-160;  of  the 

Cherokee,  219-220;  stone,  with  burial,  141, 

284 

Pipes,  earthenware,  with  burial,  124;  of  early 

Cherokee,   206,   244,   260-265,   288-289;   of 

earthenware,    194;    stone,    how   made,    236; 

stone,  with  burial,  56,  125 

Pits  at  Mainland  site,  60;  burials  in,  164-165; 

in  Great  Midden,  78-79 

Pitted  stones  of  early  Cherokee,  285 

Polychrome     pottery     discussed,     189—192;     in 

Nacoochee  mound,  280-281;  of  Second  cul- 

ture, 279-280.     See  Pottery 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

316 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

Position   of   burials,    71,    73,    89-90,    114-116, 

119-120,    164,    278.     See  Burials;  Flexure; 

Orientation 

Potsherds,  covers  made  from,  194-195;  gaming 

discs  made  from,  268;  in  mounds,  44,  110; 

in   pits,    60,    79;    in    rock-shelter,    33;    sites 

marked  by,  26,  32,  49,  139;  with  burial,  125 

Pottery,  changes  in  form  of,  292-293;  character 

of,  on  Hiwassee  island,  142,  281;  Cherokee, 

type  of,   143;  disc  with  burial,   104;  fabrics 

impressed  on,  222,  242,  287;  in  Great  Midden, 

67;  in  midden  pits,  79;  manufacture  of,  195- 

204;   of  early   Cherokee,   81,    144,    172-204, 

283-284;    of    later    period,    168;    of    Round 

Grave  people,  81,  154-158,  166,  277;  of  Second 

culture,    279;    pipes    of,    260-265,    288-289; 

polychrome,  from  Hiwassee  island,  107,  140. 

143;  polychrome,  how  found,  169-170;  poly- 

chrome,  of   Second   culture,   279-280;   poly- 

chrome, of  Tennessee  valley,  290;  tools  for 

making,    239-240;    uses    of,    192-195;    with 

skeletons,  55,  65,  76,  98,  104-105,  124,  125. 

See  Polychrome  pottery 

Prater's  Ferry,  rock-shelter  near,  32 

Prater's  (Maxey's)  island,  site  on,  32 

Prisoners,  disposal  of,  293 

Punches,  antler,  of  early  Cherokee,  285 

Qualla  Reservation,  potterv  made  on.  195-204 

Quartz,  arrowpoints  of,  159;  discoidal  stones  of, 

265 

Quartzile,  arrowpoints  of,  1  59 

Rasps,    of    what    composed,    237;    sandstone, 

steatite  worked  with,   152;  sandstone,   with 

burial,  117;  stone,  used  in  shell-  working,  239 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

317 

Rattles,  musselshells  used  as,  270 

Rattlesnake  gorgets  of  early  Cherokee,  253,  286 

Rectangular  graves  at  Mainland  site,  51  ;  attrib- 

uted   to    Cherokee,    81  ;  in  Great  Midden, 

72-77 

Rhea  Springs,  mounds  near,  83-92,  272 

Ripley,  N.  Y.,  pipes  from  near,  264 

Robes,  see  Clothing;  Garments 

Rock-shelters  near  Louisville,  Term.,  32 

Round  Grave  culture  defined,  142-146,  276 

Round  Grave  people,  pits  attributed  to,  78,  79; 

pottery  of,   111;  remains  of,   140,   147-167; 

successors  of,   167-171;  village-site  of,   109, 

141 

Round  graves,  bv  whom  made,  61  ;  character  of, 

80-81;  in  Great  Midden,  68-72.     See  Circu- 

lar graves;  Graves 

Rushes,  matting  made  of,  279.     See  Cane 

Salt-pan  ware  of  early  Cherokee,  185,  222,  283 

Sandstone,  agricultural  tools  of,  218;  gorget  of, 

from  Great  Midden,  161;  pipes  of,  260;  used 

as  rasps,  117,  152,  233,  237 

Sawing,  how  done,  237 

Scalping  exhibited  by  skull,  124,  126 

Scarifiers  of  bone,  269 

Scrapers,    flint,    use    of,    233,    236,    237.     See 

Skin-dressing 

Scratchers  of  bone,  269 

0 

Second    culture     people    of    Tennessee    valley. 

290-291 

Sewing,  how  accomplished,  227-229 

Sharp,  R.  A.,  site  owned  by,  32 

Sheet-brass  on  Bussell's  island,  82.     See  Brass 

objects 

Sheet-copper,  beads  of,  250-251,  253;  jinglers  of, 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

318 


CHEROKEE  REMAINS 


61,  256-257;  on  Bussell's  island,  82;  pend- 
ants as  ear-ornaments,  259.  See  Copper 

Shells,  beads  made  of,  244-249;  beads  of,  with 
dead,  54;  ear-ornaments  of,  54,  121,  123, 
124,238,247,257-259,  286;  with  burial,  124; 
marine,  bowl  made  from,  125;  marine,  mask 
of,  112;  marine,  not  with  Round  Grave 
people,  163;  marine,  of  early  Cherokee,  82; 
ornaments  of  early  Cherokee,  144,  167,  243, 
286;  ornaments  of  Second  culture,  279; 
ornaments  of  Tennessee  valley,  290;  pendants 
as  ear-ornaments,  259;  pendants  made  of, 
252-255;  used  for  pottery  tempering,  158, 
192.  See  Beads;  Conch-shells;  Ear-ornaments; 
Musselshells;  Necklaces 

Shell-working,  implements  for,  238-239 

Shelters,  see  Rock-shelters 

Sieve,  basketry,  use  of,  221 

Silver  heels  site,  excavation  at,  106 

Sinkers,  musselshells  used  as,  270;  of  steatite, 
153.  See  Net-sinkers 

Siouan  culture  of  Cumberland  valley,  170,  280; 
pottery  in  Nacoochee  mound,  281;  tribes, 
fabric  bags  made  by,  206,  242,  287 

Sites,  how  marked,  26-27;  near  Little  River 
shoals,  32;  summary  of,  272-276.  See  Vil- 
lage-sites 

Skeletons,  see  Burials;  Graves 

Skin-dressing  by  Cherokee.  224-227 

Skins  used  for  clothing,  224.     See  Deerskin 

Skirts,  see  Clothing;  Garments 

Slate,  agricultural  tools  of,  2i8;  gorget  of,  from 
Great  Midden,  161;  objects  with  burials,  100. 
See  Gorgets 

Smith,  Harlan  I.,  cited,  191,  250 


INDIAN    NOTES 


INDEX 

319 

Smoothing-stone  with  burial,  124 

Snails  used  as  food,  217 

Soapstone.  see  Steatite 

Soot  used  for  paint,  260 

Southern  Appalachian  region,  culture  of,  289, 

292;  pottery  of,  175,  184,  282-284 

Spearpoints,  bones  used  for,  122,  229 

Spears  of  the  early  Cherokee,  211-212 

Steatite,  boat-stones  of,  270;  gorget  of,  152,  161; 

pipes  of,   289;  pots  absent  from   Cherokee 

deposits,  81;  sinker  of,  153;  vessels  at  Main- 

land site,  49,  148;  vessels  in  Great  Midden,  67; 

vessels  of  Round  Grave  people,  81,  152-153, 

166,  277;  vessels  on  Hiwassee  island,  112,  142, 

149-152;  vessels  on  Kodger's  island,  Ala.,  165 

Stone,  gorget  with  burial,  137;  pestle  with  burial, 

141;    tablet    with    burial,    123.     See    Disc; 

Discoidal  stones;  Implements;  Knives 

Stone  graves  in  mounds,  274,  280;  of  Tennessee 

valley,  290;  on  Hiwassee  island,   107,   136, 

143-144.     See  Graves 

Stonework  of  early  Cherokee,  284-285;  of  Round 

Grave  people,  158-161;  tools  for,  233-236 

Stratification  of  culture,  276;  of  mounds,  111- 

112,  130-132 

Sun-fish  effigy  vessels,  105,  144,  187-188.    See 

Fish  effigy. 

Swastika,  see  Triskele 

Tablet,  stone,  with  burial,  123 

Taino  pottery  of  West  Indies,  184 

Teeth,  animal,   in  Round  graves,   81;  animal, 

necklace     of,     162-163.     See     Animal-teeth; 

Bear-teeth;  Lynx-teeth 

Tempering  of  pottery,  158,  176,  192,  198,  240 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

320 

CHEROKEE    REMAINS 

Textiles  described  and  illustrated,  222-224.    See 

Fabrics;  Weaving 

Thomas,  Cyrus,  researches  by,  27,  36,  40,  64, 

66,96 

Timberlake,  Lieut.,  on  chunkey  game,  266-267; 

on  Indian  fishing,  216 

Tools,  see  Implements 

Tortoise,  see  Box-tortoise 

Toy  vessels  of  Cherokee,  193 

Trade  by  early   Cherokee,   82,   144;  early,   in 

Tennessee  vallev,  170;  in  copper  and  shells, 

167-168,  243,  256-257,  279,  286;  via  Ten- 

nessee river,  25 

Transportation  via  Tennessee  river,  25 

Tree-felling,  how  accomplished,  230 

Triple  burial  on  Hiwassee  island,  126 

Triskele  design  on  gorgets,  124,  252,  253,  286 

Tubes,   bone,   of   problematic   use,   271;   bone, 

with  burial,  122 

Turbyfill,  C.  0.,  assistance  by,  24,  30    • 

Turkey-bone,  awl  made  from.  120 

Upper  Hampton  place,  burial  customs  at,  168; 

mounds  at,  83-92,  272,  280 

Utensils  deposited  with  dead,  53,  205-242.    See 

Pottery 

Van  Name,  W.  G.,  shells  identified  by,  217 

Vegetal  fiber,  clothing  of,  222.     See  Fabrics 

Vessels,  see  Pottery 

Village-sites  on  Hiwassee  island,  139-142;  sum- 

mary of,  275-276.     See  Sites. 

Vines,  ropes  made  of,  216 

War  equipment  of  early  Cherokee,  206-215 

Water-bottle,  see  Bottle;  Pottery 

INDIAN    NOTES 

INDEX 

321 

Weaving  by  early  Cherokee,   222-224;  imple- 
ments for,  229 
]V  edges,  use  of,  230 
Wesleyan  University,  collection  of,  185 
West  Indies,  pottery  of,  184 
White  Place,  pottery  from,  190 
Wilson,  J.  R.,  acknowledgment  to,  84 
Women,   Cherokee,   clothing  of,   221-222;   the 
tribal  potters,  293 
Wood,  hoes  of,  218;  mortar  of,  219 
Woodchuck-skin,  bow-strings  made  of,  211 
Woodworking,  by  cripples,  106,  231-232;  tools 
described,  229-233 
Wrist-guard,  see  Bracer 

• 

AND    MONOGRAPHS 

RY 


:;:i.  '  VN"  '^OT'ES 


MUSEUM    OF   THE    AMERICAN    INDIAN 


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